Deceptions
by Sophia Hawkins
Summary: The paramedics tried to stabilize Kelly Severide to move him to the ambulance. He was barely conscious and had lost a lot of blood from two stab wounds. On the other side of the apartment, Matt Casey stood covered in blood. "You recognize this knife?" one of the cops asked. He nodded, the words barely audible, "Yeah, it's mine." Sometimes people weren't what they appeared to be.
1. Chapter 1

Deceptions

Kelly Severide's apartment was in a shambles, the scene of an obvious struggle. Furniture was turned over or broken, there was blood on the floor. Paramedics had Kelly on a gurney in his living room and were trying to stabilize him enough to move him out to the ambulance. He was barely conscious and had lost a lot of blood from two stab wounds, one in the shoulder and one in the abdomen, he'd already bled through most of the bandage pads the paramedics had taped to him to keep pressure on. He'd already been unresponsive when they arrived and hadn't been able to answer any of their questions as they worked on him.

On the other side of the apartment, Matt Casey's entire appearance and his demeanor were equally disheveled. His hair stuck out in sweat-soaked spikes, his clothes were smeared with blood, his hands were also covered in it, there was one superficial streak trailing from his forehead clear down his cheek. He was largely non-responsive to the two policemen who advised him of his rights and led him out of the apartment and to a waiting squad car parked outside, all the while a third policeman bagged a knife that was coated in blood that was laying on the floor. He called to the others to hold on a minute, and held the bag out towards Casey, his eyes just barely made contact with the item.

"You recognize this knife?"

Casey's eyes stared blankly ahead, and finally he nodded his head once. Just barely audible were the words that came out of his mouth, "Yeah, it's mine."

He'd called 911 half an hour ago and told the dispatcher what had happened. When the police arrived, he made a full confession to what he'd done. After that he just seemed to shut down. This was the first thing he'd said to the officers since he confessed. They kept him away from Kelly while the paramedics tried to save him.

The two patrolmen escorted him out, standing on either side of him so there was no chance he'd make a break for it and try to run. A moment later the paramedics followed, hauling Kelly on the gurney and carefully wheeling it down the steps of the stoop. He was loaded in the ambulance and they just turned on the lights and sirens as they sped out of there. Casey sat in the back of the squad car as a plainclothes cop ordered the patrolmen to take him to Med. They could get all the forensic evidence they needed, but it was obvious the man was in shock and might be in need of medical treatment himself, which could make his confession a murky piece of evidence in the investigation. The street was full of a half dozen marked police vehicles and a couple unmarked black SUVs as well, there were easily two dozen police in all both in the apartment and out in the street assessing the situation now that it was all over. Matt had honestly expected to see some familiar faces from the 21st District, Voight's people in Intelligence or at least some of the patrolmen they knew, but he didn't recognize any of the police who were on the scene, and they didn't know him, which seemed to make the whole thing even worse than it already was, if that was even possible. This was already as bad as things got.

Casey never said a word the whole ride to the hospital. He just sat in the backseat and half looked ahead through the partition and out past the windshield at the street ahead of them. He heard the two police talking to each other though he wasn't really picking up anything specific from the conversation, he heard the crackle and static of the radio and a dispatcher's voice talking about an unrelated event for other available units in the area. He didn't say a word when they arrived at the hospital, or when he was escorted inside by the cops, or when one of them handcuffed him to the metal chair he was sitting on while they waited for a doctor to look at him. Chicago Med was always chaos, at best, tonight it was a regular nuthouse, people coming in with all kinds of injuries, some of them screaming, some of them unconscious, Kelly had to already be there, but Casey hadn't seen him.

Through the corner of his eye he saw somebody walking by, and he sat up and took notice for the first time.

"Maggie!" The first thing he'd said since he'd left the apartment.

The nurse passing by stopped, nearly jumped at her name, and turned and her eyes bulged as she stormed over to him.

"Matt, what's going on?"

"Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to stay back," the patrolman told her.

"Where's Kelly? How is he? He's _alive_, isn't he?" Casey was suddenly anxious to get answers.

Maggie kept a distance between them with the patrolman acting as a barricade but she told him, "He's in surgery right now, the doctors are doing everything they can."

"Is he going to be alright?" Casey wanted to know.

He tried to get up, he tried to get to Maggie, and it took both patrolmen to get him to sit back down and told Maggie to leave. It wasn't that she was blindly obeying them, but she had to check on a patient, though she told Matt she'd come back when she knew something more. A few minutes later another nurse came towards them and told the patrolmen that the doctor could see Casey now; one of them unlocked the handcuffs from the chair and they walked on either side of Matt again and escorted him to the examining room.

Casey was alert and aware, and he felt a gnawing in his stomach, though he was paying no attention to his own condition or the cops hovering around him. His sole focus was on Severide. 'The doctors doing everything they can' wasn't good enough. Kelly _had_ to be alright, he couldn't die now, _not now_. Not after everything that had happened.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, intellectually he _knew_ how this had all happened, but it still didn't feel real to him and he was still clueless as to how things had gotten this far out of hand.


	2. Chapter 2

2 months earlier-

Casey had stopped off at Kelly's apartment before heading in to work that day. He'd told Severide he'd be stopping by and he knew Kelly should be up already. His car was parked at the curb, Casey got out of his truck, headed up the steps and knocked on the door, and waited. Faintly, he heard footsteps moving through the room towards the door, and heard the chain and the bolt being undone.

The person who answered the door was _not_ who Casey was expecting to see.

Instead of Kelly, there was a woman, a tall, tanned, blonde haired woman in her 30s, dressed only in a man's button-up shirt, her hair slightly mussed, a wide awake look in her eyes and a smug smirk on her face.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

Casey's brain couldn't even function at first. He stared at the woman, then took a step back and looked at the number on the building to make sure he had the right address.

"I'm sorry," he finally managed to get the words out, his tone indicating just how clueless he was about what was going on, "I must have the wrong apartment."

"Casey!"

Matt looked past the woman and saw Kelly entering the living room from the kitchen.

"Or maybe not," Casey amended his previous statement. He stood on his toes to be seen past the woman and asked Kelly, "Can I see you for a minute?"

"Sure," Kelly answered, clearly oblivious to Casey's unease at the situation.

Casey had already hotfooted it back down the stairs and was standing on the sidewalk as Kelly came outside and followed him.

"I told you I'd be coming over this morning, didn't I?" Casey asked.

"Yeah."

"Well...you could've called me if this was a bad time."

"It's not."

"Oh yeah?" Casey glanced back to the door. The woman was still there and coyly waved down to him. "A lot of your dates answer the door like that?"

"She's not a date," Kelly said. "We met at a bar last night."

"Oh that explains everything," Casey dryly remarked, "anyway, just wanted to drop off your ticket for the Blackhawks game next week."

Kelly grinned as he took the extra ticket from Matt. "Cool, thanks. I'll see you on shift."

"Yeah, sure, uh..." Casey looked towards the door again and asked Kelly, "You at least get her name?"

Kelly playfully jabbed him in the ribs and answered, "Cathy."

* * *

They were two hours into shift and just returning from a call when they encountered a peculiar sight just off the apparatus floor.

"What the hell?" Cruz asked as he pulled the rig into its accustomed spot.

"Who's that?" Otis asked, looking at the blonde haired woman in a tight black outfit who seemed to be arguing with Connie.

"Uh oh," Casey said, realizing it was the same woman who'd answered the door at Kelly's apartment.

Severide hopped out of the Squad rig and went over to find out what was going on, and just came into the tail end of the discussion the two women were having.

"Cathy?"

The blonde woman turned and her face lit up. "Kelly! I was hoping I'd find you here."

The others stepped out of the trucks and everybody stood around trying to figure out what was going on.

"This really isn't a good time, Cathy," Kelly told her, "What's up?"

"Oh, you forgot your phone when you left this morning," she said as she took it out of her pocket.

Kelly's hand absently reached to his right side pocket and realized it was missing. "Uh, thanks..."

"I was just going to leave it in your office and slip out, but," Cathy nodded towards Connie and said half under her breath, "I had a problem."

Casey took notice of Connie standing five feet behind the visitor, her usual no-nonsense expression on her face, except for one slightly raised eyebrow at Cathy's comment. A few more words were exchanged and Cathy turned to leave. Casey turned and watched her leave, so did everybody else, but for a very different reason. Everybody else's blood was flowing from watching how her body moved in the tight black fabric of her clothes. Casey had only been around the woman for a couple minutes, but he hoped that this was one of Severide's one night stands that had already run its course and the woman would be history by tomorrow.

* * *

Casey knocked on Kelly's door and opened it. "Can I come in?"

Kelly was at his desk working on his incident report of their last call and looked up from what he was doing. "Yeah, sure."

Casey did, and shut the door behind him, and thought about what he wanted to say, and instead went over to Kelly's bunk and laid down on it.

"This is a switch," Kelly noted. He turned in his chair and asked Casey, "What's on your mind?"

"Uh...how did that woman get your phone?"

"I left it at home when I came to work," Kelly answered, "it happens."

"Yeah, but..." Casey sat up, "what was she doing in your apartment after you'd left?"

Kelly picked up on _something_ in what Casey was saying, but not the whole thing, and said in response, "She wanted to take a shower and freshen up before she left, that's all."

Casey did a double take. "Boy you're trusting, leave a woman you barely know alone in your apartment...she could've robbed you blind."

"Yeah well she didn't," Kelly took his phone out and held it up to prove his point.

"Are you sure?" Casey asked.

The look on Kelly's face said he wanted to shoot down Casey's question, but his own reasonable doubt was starting to apply. Finally though, he shook his head, "No way."

"Well, the good thing is if anything's missing tomorrow you can give the police a..._more_ than adequate description."

"Shut up," Kelly picked up something from his desk to throw at Casey.

"You'd be able to answer the question about birthmarks or tattoos or other identifiable marks in very full details."

"Shut up," Kelly repeated with a small laugh.

Casey chuckled, then became quiet, and thought, and asked Kelly, "Did you tell her you're a lieutenant?"

Kelly paused to wrack his brain, "I don't remember."

"It's just...most people, who aren't familiar with the fire department...wouldn't know that a lieutenant has his own quarters," Casey said, "So how'd she know you did?"

Kelly shrugged, "I probably told her and just forgot."

"You told her you have an office at the firehouse?" Casey asked.

"We were drinking pretty heavily last night, I don't remember what I told her," Kelly said. He looked at Casey and asked, "Why?"

Casey didn't say what he was thinking, didn't say anything at all in fact. He wasn't sure what to say.

Kelly started laughing and said, "You're paranoid."

Casey smirked sheepishly and replied, "Not every day a half naked woman answers the door."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"But...it's just a one time thing?"

"Yeah, it's nothing serious."

* * *

Kelly's phone bleeped, indicating a new text message. He picked it up and Casey saw the Squad lieutenant's eyebrows raise halfway up his forehead and his eyes widened to maximum capacity.

"What is it?" he asked.

Kelly was still stunned as Casey leaned over, and felt his eyes do the same thing at the sight of a woman's body in the picture dressed in a see-through white T-shirt and black lingerie. The picture cut off at the woman's neck.

"Whoa, who's that?" Casey asked, genuinely intrigued.

Kelly shook his head, "I don't know."

Casey did a double take, "You don't _know_? How many women are you seeing right now?"

Kelly scrolled down to see if there was a message at the bottom of the text, then up to see who had sent the picture.

"It's Cathy," he said.

"_That's_ Cathy? And you didn't recognize her?" Casey asked. "She can't look _that_ different with her clothes _on_, Kelly." He leaned over again and asked him, "Why's she sending you pictures?"

Kelly shrugged, "Dunno."

"One time thing, huh?" Casey asked.

"Well...maybe two times," Kelly replied with a mischievous smirk.

"And you wonder why you're still single," Casey said.

"I don't wonder, I revel in it."

"Obviously," Matt responded.

"You know, it wouldn't hurt _you_ to get out and meet someone."

"Getting drunk and going home with someone I barely know is not _my_ idea of meeting someone, Kelly," Casey replied, "Or, for that matter, of a good time."

"It doesn't seem to matter what your idea of a good time is, Matt," Kelly said in return, "either way you haven't _had_ one for months."

"I don't recall asking for your opinion," Matt told him as he lightly elbowed Kelly in the ribs.

"It wouldn't kill you to try it sometime, you know," Severide said. "You haven't even been out with a woman since..."

"Shut up," Casey teasingly elbowed him again.

"You should try it, it might do you some good," Kelly suggested.

Casey shook his head, "Thanks but no thanks, that's not how I go about looking for a relationship."

"Who said anything about a relationship? What's wrong with having a good time with no strings attached?"

"There are always strings, Kelly," Casey replied. "Just because you don't think about them doesn't mean they're not there."

Kelly raised an eyebrow in question, "Now what's that supposed to mean?"

Casey closed his eyes and shook his head dismissively and conceded, "Nothing, I'm being paranoid. Just...be careful, okay? CFD can't afford you getting another sexual harassment suit filed against you."

"Your trust is so touching," Kelly said teasingly.

Casey grabbed Kelly's phone away from him and brought the picture up again and asked him, "So, you gonna send her one back? You know, maybe in the shower," he held the phone in front of him waist-high.

Kelly laughed and elbowed him again, "Give me back my phone."


	3. Chapter 3

7:40 A.M. and shift was changing in 20 minutes. Casey went over to Severide's quarters and looked in the window and saw Kelly pacing around with his phone at his ear. Casey rapped on the glass and saw Kelly turn towards the noise, but he didn't stop talking to whoever was on the other end of the line. He signaled to Casey he'd just be a minute, he was actually five. He finally disconnected the call and opened the door. "Sorry about that."

"Something wrong?" Casey asked.

Kelly shook his head, "Cathy, she suggested we go out tonight."

"Oh, an actual date? I'm impressed," Casey joked. "You still remember what to do on those, right? You know it involves more conversation than just 'Ribbed or ultra-sensitive'?"

"Shut up," Kelly playfully stomped his heel on Casey's foot.

"Ow!" Casey winced at his toes being ground under the heel of Kelly's boot. The moment passed and he asked, "So?"

"So what?" Kelly asked.

"Did you at least find out her last name this time?" Matt wanted to know.

"Cathy Woods."

"Well, I'd ask more, but I know details aren't your strong suit," Casey said.

Severide snorted in response as he moved to kick Casey as he walked by, the blonde lieutenant caught sight of him before he did it and quickly got out of the way, laughing as he made a narrow escape.

* * *

It wasn't much of a secret that Casey and Severide had a severe difference of opinions on what they were looking for in a woman, the two constantly joked with each other about Casey always focusing on Miss Right, and Severide leaned more towards Miss Right Now at any club or bar he went to. Despite their vast differences in what they were looking for, they were certainly able to respect each other's views, and as long as both of them didn't wind up with the same woman, there were no problems between them. As it was, Casey had to admit he was a bit jealous that Severide was actually out with a woman, on an actual date instead of his usual drunken hookups at last call, while _he_ was sitting at home in his apartment with nothing to do but watch TV. Lately he'd gotten engrossed in the true crime lineup and found himself spending hours every other night watching murder cases and damn if they weren't addicting, even more than the cop dramas on the lower channels.

After shift change he'd gone out on a construction job and he'd only gotten back to his apartment around 6 that night, so he was well past exhausted, so much so that he was too lazy to go to bed. He just parked himself on the couch after dinner, pulled the blanket off the back cushions, curled up under the heavy blanket and resigned himself to sleep there whenever he got tired of watching TV. In fact, he found himself cat-napping off and on all night, he'd watch TV for a while, close his eyes, hear the narration of the crime and investigation, have dreams about it, then wake up, watch TV a while more, then nod off again and dream about the things he was listening to. By 10:30 he was seriously considering turning the TV off and just going to sleep. He sighed as it started to dawn on him that he was getting old if he was this wiped out this early in the night, he missed those early days in and fresh out of the academy when he had enough energy to go all day and night without having to slow down.

The more he thought about it, he missed a lot of things, being young and relatively carefree, he missed Hallie, every day he missed her so much. He missed having _any_ woman in his life, Hallie had been the one he thought he'd marry, but after a while even he had to admit his life had to go on even without her. At first he felt too guilty to even entertain the notion of being with another woman, but gradually he realized that that part of his life was over and he couldn't spend the rest of his days just clinging to a memory. But it was hard to get out and meet somebody new, it hadn't even been easy when he met Hallie. They'd been together for 8 years, and never gotten married, there was always a reason why it wasn't a good time for it. But none of them ever seemed good enough to Casey, and especially if he'd known back then what he knew now, he would've found a way to convince Hallie to go through with it and marry him. He missed her so much it was unbelievable.

Getting back into the swing of dating hadn't been easy either. He couldn't define what he was looking for but he knew it when he saw it and he hadn't seen much of it since Hallie died. Some days he wished he actually could just be more like Kelly and not really care who he was with, just go out, meet a woman, go home with her, it might not solve anything else but at least the nights wouldn't be as lonely.

Except...Casey had actually had a few one night stands and he already knew from personal experience that they didn't help. There were two different kinds: the ones that he knew wouldn't last after that night, which made it extremely difficult to enjoy the few hours they spent together because he knew when the night was over, that was the end of that; and the ones he foolishly thought could actually go somewhere and become a real relationship and not just be something cheap, drunk and easy. Half of the one night stands he'd had hadn't been intended as such, but the next day, or the day after that, the woman always had a bombshell to drop on him why she couldn't be with him, she wasn't looking for anything serious, it wasn't the right time, she had to leave the city, the state, sometimes even the country for work, and didn't see a long-distance relationship they _just_ started working out that way. There'd been a couple where he'd found out the next day, much to his horror and disgust, that she was still involved with someone else. Legally separated but technically married, they tried to brush it off as no big deal, but it was where Matt was concerned, even if there wasn't any reconciliation planned, in his mind it was still cheating, and he'd never tolerated cheating before, and he sure as hell wasn't going to just because he hadn't known that's what he was getting into. He remembered that saying 'ignorance of the law is no excuse', well, once he knew she still had a husband, he couldn't even claim ignorance anymore, he _knew_, and once he knew, he got out as quick as he could.

Those were certainly some of the least proud moments in his life and he generally kept them to himself, he'd been too ashamed by them to even tell Kelly about, so as far as anybody knew, he was strictly looking for a committed relationship. He certainly was _now_ anyway. He'd been burnt on enough one-time hookups that he knew what he was talking about when he told Severide there were always strings attached. Kelly's problem, that he wasn't even aware about, as far as Casey could tell, was that Severide didn't think in terms of those women actually having an entire life before they sat down at that bar, a whole history he knew nothing about that could come back to bite him later on; an unexpected pregnancy, an undetected STD, a boyfriend who found out his woman cheated on him, so many different scenarios that any of them could result in more drama than he or anybody else needed. The nights might've been lonelier for his reservations but Casey just wanted to meet a woman he could fall in love with, who loved him in return, and not have to deal with all that additional baggage that could very easily pop up sometime after a one-time fling.

Casey was going in and out of sleep and felt his head swimming, when he heard the familiar buzzing of his cell phone. He opened his eyes and saw it on the coffee table and saw the screen light up, and reached over to grab it. Forcing his eyes open he recognized Kelly's number, and also that it was 11:45 P.M., what did he want at this time of night?

"Hello?" he tiredly asked as he set the phone to his ear. He waited a few seconds, there was no answer. He tried again. "Hello? Kelly?"

A few more seconds passed, and nothing. Then Casey heard the _click_ of the call being disconnected. He tiredly grumbled to himself and dropped the phone on the table. If Severide didn't want to talk, he didn't care, all he wanted to do was get some sleep. He finally picked up the remote and shut off the TV, and very quickly was out like a light.


	4. Chapter 4

When Casey woke up the next morning, it took a while for him to remember the phone call from the night before. It certainly wasn't the first time somebody had called him and not said anything, but Kelly usually wasn't one of them. It was early, but Kelly should be awake, and though it was probably nothing, Casey wanted to get it cleared up and find out why he called last night. The phone rang, and rang, and rang, and an automatic voice came on telling him the phone's voicemail was either full or not turned on. Damn it.

He _could've_ waited until later to talk to Severide, but instead he decided to head on over and see what was going on. He got in his truck and drove over to Kelly's apartment, by the time he got there the sun was up in full force and everybody around the block was leaving for work or school. Casey walked up the steps and knocked on the door and waited.

And was met with a familiar sight of Cathy Woods answering the door in nothing but one of Kelly's button-up shirts, though it didn't escape Casey's attention, though he was definitely _not_ trying to stare, that two of the buttons were open on it, one on top, and one on the bottom.

"Hey Matt," she said in a tone that was just a little too friendly for his liking.

"Hi," he said, dumbstruck for a moment what else to say, finally he settled for the question, "Where's Kelly?"

"He's still asleep," the blonde woman answered, "can I help you with something?"

"I need to talk to him," Casey said, "can you get him, please?"

"You could tell me what it is and I can give him the message when he gets up," she replied.

The first thought going through Casey's head was that Kelly must've drank more than usual for him last night and probably had a raging hangover today, in which case he was sorely tempted to scream at the top of his lungs throughout the whole apartment just to be annoying. But he decided against it, and decided it was better to remain civil and polite, both Kelly, and his latest fling.

"Thanks but no thanks, I'll just talk to him later," Matt said as he turned to leave.

"Hey Casey!"

Matt turned back, so did Cathy, and he saw Kelly coming out of the bedroom half dressed.

"What's up?" he asked.

Casey was going to ask Kelly to see him outside again since he didn't want to intrude, but he could see that quickly getting old, so, not really sure what to do, he tested the waters, "Can I come in?"

"Sure, what's going on?" Kelly asked.

"Uh..." Casey moved past Cathy and looked back and forth at the two of them and asked, "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

"Nah," Kelly shook his head, "Coffee's on, you want some?"

"Sure, I could use a cup," Casey said, and followed Kelly into the kitchen.

"So what brings you over so early?" Kelly asked as he got two mugs down from the cupboard.

"Did you need something last night?" Casey asked.

Kelly turned around. "Huh?"

"When you called, did you need something?" Matt asked.

Kelly squinted one eye and said, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You called me last night, quarter to midnight."

"I did not," Kelly replied.

"Well you didn't talk, but you called me."

"Nuh uh."

"I can prove it," Casey took out his phone and pulled up the last calls he got. "See?"

Kelly took the phone from him and held the screen two inches from his face. "Huh...I didn't call you."

"Maybe you didn't, but your phone did," Matt told him.

"Sorry," Kelly shrugged as he handed it back.

"Oh well, no problem," Casey said, "just as long as everything's alright."

"Yeah, everything's fine," Kelly answered as he sipped his coffee. "You eaten yet?"

Casey shook his head over a mouthful of hot coffee.

"Why don't you stay for breakfast? I'll have it ready in 20 minutes."

"Oh, thanks for the offer," Casey glanced towards the living room and saw Cathy standing with her feet shoulder width apart and her arms folded across her chest and was tapping her fingers impatiently against her bicep. He took the hint that his presence wasn't wanted and told Kelly, "But I can't really stay. I just wanted to make sure nothing was wrong."

"Suit yourself," Kelly replied as he took a carton of eggs and a pound of bacon out of the fridge.

"Call me later when it's a good time?" Casey offered.

Kelly turned towards him, one eyebrow arched in confusion. "Any time's fine."

Casey nodded, going along with it, "Sure, Kelly...see ya."

He left the kitchen and was met with an obstacle barring him from the front door, the obstacle in question being Cathy Woods, who still had her feet planted firmly and her arms crossed.

"Excuse me," he said as he moved to step beside her.

He got out the door and just started down the steps when he heard her voice behind him, he turned and saw her standing at the top of the stairs, calling down in what other people might interpret as a friendly tone, "Don't be a stranger, Matt, drop in any time."

To somebody else it might've been a friendly greeting, but Casey could sense the passive aggressive resentment clouded under it. He looked at her for a second, then turned and headed to his truck. It was too early in the morning for this and Casey wasn't going to get into it with Severide's...whatever she was. Honestly he was surprised that she was still there, he would've figured she'd be lone gone by the time the sun came up. Instead she was right there acting put out by his appearance on Severide's doorstep. He didn't know what she had to be mad about, it wasn't his fault that he hadn't been able to get Kelly on the phone. But, it was over, he left, and now the two of them could go back to...he didn't even want to think about that one.

* * *

During the next shift, everybody had just gotten back from a structure fire and everybody had had to toss their stuff in the wash and hit the showers. Casey had just finished getting dressed when he heard a phone bleep with an incoming text message. He realized it was Severide's, who was still in the shower. He knew it would wait, but curiosity got the better of him and he picked the phone up off the bench to see who had sent what to him.

"Whoa," he said as his eyes bugged out.

"What is it?" Kelly pulled the shower curtain back enough to see what he was doing.

Casey stood there staring at the phone for a few seconds before he finally responded, "Remember that picture you got the other day?"

"Yeah?"

"Well here's another one, leaving much _less_ to the imagination," Casey said, feeling a perverse smirk on his face and a slight heat rising in his cheeks.

"Give me that," Kelly stuck his arm out through the gap in the shower curtain.

Casey took it over and handed it to Kelly, who glimpsed at it and reacted with a similar, "Whoa."

Casey was struggling to maintain a straight face as he asked, "Is that Cathy again?"

"Yup."

Casey pressed his hand against his face, just about to lose it, unable to keep his voice from cracking in parts as he said, "Well that's one hell of a way to say 'goodbye', isn't it?"

Kelly handed his phone back to Casey and at the same time lightly shoved him back to shut him up.

"So what happened?" Matt asked as he set the phone down, "You change your mind or something?"

"None of your business," Kelly called to him.

"Just let me know, is she going to answer the door in her underwear every time I come over?" Casey asked. "Not that I'm complaining, she's hot, but...it's a little weird."

"Yeah well, as long as she doesn't care, neither do I," Kelly said as he shut off the water and reached for a towel, "I mean we're all adults, we don't have any secrets."

"We sure won't for long at this rate," Casey replied teasingly. Then he thought of something else, "Sure hope Benny doesn't decide to just drop in without warning, not that I think _he'd_ complain either...oh, what about your mom, though? That could be a problem."

"It's not that serious," Kelly said as he stepped out of the stall.

"That's what you said two days ago, she's still here," Casey pointed out.

"Yeah, well..." Kelly shrugged, "some hookups last longer than others."

"Apparently," Casey said, "Most of them would've already been gone before I came over the first day."

When Kelly didn't respond, Casey looked over and he saw Severide all but staring off into space with a small smile on his face, one that Casey hadn't seen for a long time, though he couldn't recall offhand when the last time was.

"I really like her, Casey," he said. "I think this can actually be a thing."

Casey was taken aback by this but slowly nodded to show his support. "Well that's great, Kelly..."

He should've said more, he _wanted_ to, about how Kelly deserved to be happy with someone again, but honestly he felt too embarrassed to say it. It especially was not a conversation he wanted to have if someone else walked into the room at any moment. And it honestly wasn't a conversation he felt he could have given his limited experience with Cathy Woods already left him with the distinct impression he didn't like her. And he couldn't figure out what Kelly saw in her. Clearly it was something Matt couldn't see, but Kelly _did_ seem to be happy about this newfound relationship. So for now he just left it where it was and didn't say anymore.


	5. Chapter 5

Some days Casey was glad he was single. This was one such of those days, or rather nights. He'd spent another five hours on the couch in his living room drinking beer and watching true crime specials about women killing their husbands, husbands killing their wives, men killing their wives to be with other women, women killing their husbands to be with other men, women killing their husbands to be with other women. By midnight he shut the TV off, and once again curled up on the couch under a heavy blanket and waited to fall asleep.

But sleep didn't come to him, not right away anyway. He turned one way, and the other, and lay flat on his back and stared up at the ceiling. He _was_ happy for Kelly, if this was actually going to be a relationship, and if not this was one long-term fling, longer than most of his ever lasted. He still remembered that smirk on Kelly's face in the locker room at 51, Casey still couldn't place the last time he saw it, but it had been another time he was in a relationship and thought it would work out. Why hadn't it? He tried to remember, but he couldn't. But while it lasted, Severide was practically walking on air. For Kelly's sake, Casey hoped this one worked out and he wasn't disappointed again.

And yet...he tossed and turned a little more. In his time, Kelly had brought home and slept with a lot of different women, different kinds, no two were alike, most weren't even similar...but there was something about this one, Casey couldn't quite put his finger on it, but the actual impression he'd picked up so far, and he knew it wasn't any of his business, but this Cathy Woods just didn't seem like the right type of woman for Kelly. He couldn't really elaborate on that, except the one thing that kept making him feel uneasy. Twice in three days he'd gone to see Kelly, both times she answered the door, answered it half dressed, very provocatively. Who did that? Oh he was sure there were some women, but why this one? The first day he dropped over, she'd had no idea who he was or that he was coming, so why would she answer the door like that for someone she didn't know? For all she knew, he could've been anybody: the landlord, an ex-wife, a sister, a cop, the possibilities were endless.

Casey sat up as a thought suddenly occurred to him. Maybe she had something a little less random in mind.

Two thoughts came to him simultaneously, and he didn't like either one of them, but he explored both options. Either one, this woman had an ex-boyfriend of her own, and maybe she'd called him over and was expecting him to show up and start a fight between the two men. Why anybody would do that, Casey had no idea but he did know that there were some people who got their kicks that way. The other was that she hadn't called anybody, but just banked on whoever was at the door was a man, a man who would see a beautiful, half naked woman standing in the doorway and take advantage of the situation. In which case, if Kelly were to come out at the right moment, a fight could still break out between the two men, which still fit under the same category as to why Cathy might do it. But _why_ she would, Casey still couldn't figure out.

Then the first theory came to him a bit brighter. Maybe Kelly wasn't what she really had her sights on, maybe she _did_ have an ex-boyfriend...or maybe even a current boyfriend, and she wanted him to 'catch' her with another man, and what? Beat the shit out of Kelly for messing with his woman? It actually wasn't beyond the realm of possibilities given the trouble Kelly had gotten into before with women he was quick to jump in the sack with. That whole Tara nightmare still weighed heavily on Casey's mind all these years later, she'd never bothered to tell Kelly that she was engaged while she was jumping his bones, and it was partly his fault for not finding out first if she was with someone else or not, but she knew damn well that she was and had no business screwing around with other guys. But she did, and when her father found out and started making trouble, she turned it back on Kelly to make herself look good and get what she wanted. And Casey was well aware that that was a long running joke about women, they were always quick to play the victim and get men in trouble, sometimes it just happened to be true.

He didn't like the idea, but he knew it wasn't impossible, and he hoped that Kelly knew what he was getting into but he knew the reality of it was Severide was going to let the head without a brain do his thinking for him on this one.

Casey tossed and turned one way and then the other on the couch, then finally huffed in frustration. Maybe Kelly was right, maybe he _was_ being paranoid. Severide was a grown ass man, he could take care of himself, it wasn't Casey's job to be his keeper. And trying to be one had never gotten him anywhere anyway. He tried to push all the nagging thoughts to the back of his mind and block them out as he closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep.

* * *

Casey knocked on the door to Kelly's office and stuck his head in. "Got a minute?"

"Sure, what's up?"

"Just checking real quick," Casey said as he shut the door, "is it still just the two of us going to the game tomorrow night or do I have to try and scare up a third ticket?"

"Why?" Kelly asked.

Casey didn't say anything, just looked at him in mild shock.

Kelly blinked, "Oh, you mean Cathy?"

Casey nodded. "Yeah."

"Nah, she's not interested."

"Not interested in the game itself, or just hockey in general?" Casey asked.

"Either I think," Kelly replied.

"So..." Casey tried to approach the subject, "she moved in yet?"

Kelly shot him a confused look. "No, she's got her own apartment across town..." he looked at Matt and said, half choking on a laugh, "it's not that serious yet, Casey."

"Just thought I'd check," he replied. "Thought I'd make sure she's not going to be answering the door in her underwear when I come get you tomorrow night."

"Nah, she's working tomorrow night," Kelly told him.

"Let me guess..." Casey paused for feigned dramatic effect and took a stab, "Strip club?"

"No," Kelly replied, "she works at a publishing company."

Casey snorted as he stepped over towards him, "Moving up in the world aren't you, Severide?"

"Shut up," Kelly jabbed him in the side.

"Ow!" Casey grabbed his side.

Kelly looked at him, "Oh come on, I didn't hit you that hard."

Casey hissed through his teeth as he untucked his shirt and pulled it up, revealing a large bruise, "No, I think that was the last call we were on."

"Oh, sorry," Kelly said.

"So, I'll come over early tomorrow night and pick you up," Casey said.

"Let's take my car, it'll be easier to get in and out around the rest of the traffic," Kelly told him. "I"ll stop by and pick _you_ up."

"Okay," Casey said as he headed for the door.

* * *

As Kelly drove through the darkened streets with little more than the lights of the dashboard and the occasional street lamp to see by, he listened to the low, inebriated laughter coming from the passenger side of his car.

"Will you shut up already?" he asked. He'd been listening to it ever since they left the game, and it had already gotten old.

"I just can't believe it," Casey said as he leaned back in his seat, "The biggest game of the season yet, and you nearly catch the puck with your forehead. That'd be a hell of a souvenir."

"It's also a trip to the ER I don't need," Kelly replied, "You know how fast those things fly, you know how many people die from that?"

"Well," Casey said, taking a lot of pleasure in the fact that Kelly was stuck being the designated driver that night, "maybe next time we go you should wear your helmet." He busted out laughing again. "I've never seen somebody duck so fast in my life."

"I've never seen you drink so much at a game, you are enjoying this way too much, you know that?" Kelly asked.

Casey merely shrugged. "Leas' I don't have to drive home."

"Lucky me," Kelly grunted. "Can you get up to the door by yourself or do I have to _carry_ you in?"

"Hmmmm," Casey seemed to be thinking it over, then he became quiet, and the next thing Kelly heard from the passenger seat was light snoring. He reached over and elbowed Casey in his other set of ribs, "Wake up, Casey, we're almost there."

"Hm? Hu? I'm awake, stop yelling," he replied with an exhausted groan.

"I'm not yelling," Kelly said.

"Yes you are," Casey insisted.

"Am not."

"Are too."

"When I'm yelling at you, you'll know it."

"I'm seasoned in it," Casey responded with another laugh, "that's all you ever do."

"I do not."

"Do so."

"Do _not_."

"Do so," Casey replied.

"Shut up," Kelly told him as he turned his attention back to the road.

"You shut up," Casey said.

The two argued back and forth like a couple of kids for a couple minutes before Kelly reached over and smacked Casey upside the back of his head and told him, "Knock it off. We're here now."

Casey pressed his forehead against the window and looked at his apartment as it came into view. "I had a great time tonight, thanks for driving."

"Yeah well, thanks for getting the tickets," Kelly said. "Are you _sure_ you can get in alright?"

"You worry too much," Casey insisted with a small slur, "I'm fine."

"Casey _stop_!" Kelly slammed on the brakes as Casey opened the door, and had been just about to step out while the Mustang was still moving.

It was a short walk, less than 100 feet, but Kelly looked at the sidewalk and the steps like they'd suddenly become the Matterhorn. "Maybe I _should_ help you in."

"I'm _fine_," Casey insisted as he undid his seat belt, "You're the big fat pot calling the kettle black."

"I never stumbled around like this," he pointed out.

"And how would you know? How would you remember what you did when you were drunk?" Casey asked as he shoved the door open and got out, and grandstanded as he placed both feet on the pavement. "Ta-dah! See? I'm fine, you go on home."

Kelly wasn't entirely convinced. "If you're sure..."

Casey just waved him off. "Good-night."

"Alright," Kelly said reluctantly.

He put the car in gear and just started to pull away from the curb when he heard a sudden commotion and hit the brakes again. He looked back and saw Casey standing in the middle of the sidewalk screaming at something. Kelly put the gear in park and hopped out to see what was wrong.

"What is it, Casey? What's the matter?"

Casey was slightly less steady on his feet as he screamed and swore and pointed towards his truck. The block wasn't very well lit but Kelly could still see that his pickup was sitting lower than it should've and he looked down and saw all four tires puddled on the bottom. Casey was still screaming in rage and disbelief at this discovery.

"Casey, calm down," Kelly said as he tried to make some sense of this.

"Calm down?!"

"Casey," Kelly said the first thing that come to him, "By any chance have you done something to piss off Voight again?"

"What?"

"Remember Halloween a few years ago? All four tires slashed, window smashed, your bag stolen...never _were_ able to prove who did it but we _know_ it was Voight."

Casey sucked in a few ragged breaths as he tried to calm down, and as it gradually started to work he answered Kelly's question, "No, I don't think so. I...he wouldn't do this again..."

"He might, he's got a weird sense of humor and we all know it," Kelly replied.

Casey tapped the glass. "Window's still intact..." he unlocked the door and opened it up. The light came on in the ceiling and he glanced over the contents of the seat. "Nothing's missing...why?"

The word came out so suddenly and unexpectedly, and so _small_, it was obvious how helpless Casey was left feeling by this act of vandalism. "Why would anybody do this to me again? Who?"

Kelly tried to think. "You piss off _anybody_ lately?"

Casey shook his head, "Not that I know of."

"Come on, we'll call the cops and file a report," Kelly said.

"What good's that gonna do?" Casey asked. "They won't find whoever did this."

"Maybe not...but maybe you're not the only person they did this to," Kelly said, "Maybe it's a pattern they can identify."

Casey sighed. He knew no good was going to come out of it, and he knew whoever responded to the call was not going to appreciate being called out in the middle of the night over something as petty as this, and that might especially help him decide not to put too much effort into investigating.

"We'll call Antonio," Kelly said, "just incase it _would_ turn out to be work-related."

That didn't do much to bring Casey out of his stupor, but he finally nodded his head and conceded, "Alright...alright...let's get this over with."

* * *

"Sorry, Casey, odds are it's just some high school kids out for kicks," Antonio said as he finished taking down the report.

"I told you that an hour ago," Casey told Severide.

"There's been a lot of vandalism cases over the past couple weeks patrol's been called to, graffiti, obscenities written on the windows in glass chalk...somebody's been going around writing 'Tow' on random trucks with shoe polish...we _are_ keeping in mind that the owners might all be getting targeted for something but so far we haven't found anything to confirm it," Dawson said. "In the meantime all I can offer you is the regular advice, call us if you see something or someone out of the ordinary, if you think somebody's following you, be on your guard, all that good stuff."

"Thanks, Antonio," Kelly said.

Casey sighed as the Intelligence cop left. "I told you it wouldn't do any good."

"Well it's on the record incase they _can_ find out who did it," Kelly said.

"Now I have to get it towed tomorrow," Casey whined.

"I'll give you a lift down to the garage," Kelly told him. He paused for a minute and asked Casey, "You want me to stay with you tonight?"

"Why?" Casey asked. "You think they're gonna come back?"

"No, but I know you're upset, and I know you're like me, you don't do well on your own."

Casey thought about it for a moment but ultimately shook his head.

"You sure?" Kelly asked.

Casey raked his fingers through his scalp helplessly but insisted, "I'm fine."

"If you're sure..."

He nodded. "I am."

"If you change your mind you can call me."

"I know," Casey replied, "thanks."

Kelly got in his car and left, Casey looked back at the four flat tires on his truck and grumbled under his breath, "Why? Why me?"


	6. Chapter 6

Casey felt like screaming as he and Severide left the garage. "$3,000 for new tires, I don't believe this."

"I'm sorry, Casey."

"Sometimes, I hate people," Matt said.

"Me too," Kelly replied.

Wanting to change the subject and hopefully lift Casey's spirits a bit, Kelly asked him, "You doing anything after next shift?"

"I don't think so, why?"

"You want to come over for dinner? Cathy's going to cook, she thought it'd be nice to actually get acquainted with some of the people from 51," Kelly said.

Casey looked at him, "Who all's coming?"

"I don't know, you're the first one I've asked."

He thought about it for a minute. "Sure, I'll come over. Do I need to bring anything?"

"Nah, she said she'll do the cooking."

"Oh, a showoff," Casey said, "I like it. What's she cooking?"

"I don't know yet."

"No matter...yeah, I'll be there. What time?"

* * *

Casey noticed the cars pulled up outside Severide's building and figured it hadn't been a huge turnout but he guessed Severide had been able to talk a few of the guys from 51 to coming over, and he suspected they weren't there just for the food. He'd seen the way everybody stared at Cathy when she left the station house, he was sure they wanted another good look. He stood on the stoop and knocked on the door and waited. The bolt turned and the door opened.

"Hey Casey, get in here," Kelly said.

"Sorry I'm late," he said as he entered the apartment, and immediately noticed Cruz and Otis and Capp in the room. "Where's everybody else?"

"Couldn't make it," Severide answered.

"Where's..."

Before Casey could ask his question, Cathy popped out of the kitchen in a slinky black off the shoulder top and a short skirt and a skimpy apron clinging to her breasts.

"Hey Matt, you're just in time," she said, "everything's ready."

On. Off. That's the impression he was getting of that woman, a light switch. The last time he saw her she didn't seem capable of waiting to get rid of him. Of course all the witnesses in the room probably had something to do with the change in her demeanor.

You're being paranoid again, he thought to himself. He'd come over early in the morning unannounced, that could put anybody in a bad mood. This dinner had been her idea, to meet the people Kelly worked with. Still, Casey couldn't help feeling out of place, he felt like he at least should've brought something. Habit of alternating who cooked at 51, he supposed.

He was drawn out of his thoughts by Cathy's borderline bubbly voice announcing, "If everybody wants to come into the kitchen and start dishing up."

The guys couldn't have moved any faster if the building had been on fire. Casey found himself dead last in line, and he tried to see past the others to see what they were having, but it was only after everybody else had pushed past he saw a large bowl of salad in the middle of the table and a large glass pan of scalloped potatoes and ham and another glass pan with green bean casserole. Casey helped himself to an ample portion and found a spot back in the living room where everybody sat around talking and got acquainted with Severide's new girlfriend.

Casey was content to sit back and let everybody else actually ask her questions about her life, her job, etc., he waited for the inevitable moment that Capp would say something stupid, as usual, but somehow it never came, the whole dinner conversation went downright smooth, and everybody seemed as smitten with Cathy Woods as Kelly was. It all made Casey hope that this time things would actually work out for Severide, God knew he needed something to go right for once in his life, and the menagerie of women who had been in and out of his bedroom over the years sure hadn't cut it.

When his fork scraped against the empty plate and he realized he'd gotten through the whole meal without a word, and in fact looking around, finished before any of the others, he felt out of place and wished he was back at his apartment.

"Matt."

The voice broke through his thoughts and he looked over at the woman, who was staring intently at him.

"Is something wrong?"

Now he really felt like an idiot, he just shook his head and said over the half mouthful of food still lodged against his cheek, "Good dinner."

That got a laugh out of everybody else as he excused himself and went to the kitchen.

* * *

The next morning Kelly had called Casey, but only gotten his voicemail. He tried several more times, and texted Casey, but there was no response. That wasn't like him, and Kelly decided to head over and make sure everything was alright.

He pulled up outside Casey's apartment and saw the truck was still parked there. He went up to the door and found it unlocked, the apartment was dark and quiet.

"Casey? You here?"

He went through the rooms and saw a light on in the bathroom, opened the door, and felt his heart drop when he saw Casey, a couple shades paler than usual, still wearing the clothes he had on last night, lying on the floor beside the toilet curled on his side.

"Casey! What's the matter?"

Matt looked like a ghost as he weakly raised his head off the tile floor and got out a weak, "I got the flu."

Kelly stepped into the bathroom and crouched down beside him. "What happened?"

Casey weakly rested his head against the floor again and murmured, "'ve been throwing up all night."

Tears were actually forming in Casey's eyes and started to trail down his face as he told Kelly, "I've never been this sick in my life."

That worried Severide. He knew there were some bad flu seasons but as far as he knew they weren't in one now.

"Do you need me to get you to the hospital?"

"I dunno," Casey quietly said. "I just stopped a couple hours ago...I'm scared to move."

"Casey, we've got to get you off this floor...have you had anything to drink?"

Casey tried to shake his head but only had the energy to move it to one side. "Can't keep anything down."

"Hang on, I'll be right back," Kelly headed for the kitchen and looked through the contents of the fridge.

There was no ginger ale but there was half a six-pack of 7Up on the bottom shelf, and a half drunk bottle of orange Powerade on the second shelf. Kelly wasn't sure which one would be better for Matt so he pulled a can out of the plastic holder, grabbed the bottle and took both of them back to the bathroom. Casey hadn't moved.

"You need to drink something, Matt."

Casey tried to shake his head, "Just throw up again."

"Just take a sip," Kelly yanked the pull tab back and heard the carbonated soda hissing at him. He crouched down again and helped Matt sit up enough to drink the soda. "Nice and slow, take it easy...that'll help...how long have you been sick?"

Casey weakly shrugged, "I 's getting ready for bed, got a horrible stomachache..._just_ made it in here...half an hour later, same thing...finally just stayed here..."

Kelly placed his hand on Casey's forehead.

"You'll get sick," Casey told him.

"I'm not worried about that," Kelly replied, "you don't feel warm...you got a thermometer?"

Casey made a small sound and pointed up to the medicine cabinet. Kelly got up, opened the door and took out the digital thermometer, turned it on and pressed it against Casey's temple. A few seconds later it beeped.

"98.4, you don't have a fever...what other symptoms do you have? Chills, pain?"

Casey shook his head, "Everything hurts from throwing up all night...I'm soaked..."

Kelly had noticed.

"Let's assume the worst of it's past, can you get in the tub to get cleaned up?" Kelly asked.

Casey tried to respond but the words didn't fully come out, but it sounded to Kelly like he said 'I don't know'.

"You need to get clean, Casey," Kelly reached over and turned on the taps and shut the drain plug in place, "you'll feel a _little_ better anyway."

Casey moaned and whimpered from where he sunk back down on the floor. Kelly made sure the water was tepid, he didn't want it to get hot and risk upsetting Casey's stomach again, while the tub filled he grabbed Casey by the arm and pulled him to sit up again, Casey leaned against Kelly like a limp rag, no strength left in him. He dropped his head against Kelly's shoulder and closed his eyes, Kelly put his arm around his friend and soothingly rocked him as they waited.

"I'm sorry you're feeling so bad, Matt...why didn't you call me? I would've come over."

"Couldn't stop...long enough to get to...phone..."

Kelly grimaced at this piece of information and slightly tightened his hold on Casey, wishing there was something he could do to take away _any_ part of his suffering.

When the tub got full, Kelly turned off the taps, and with less of a fight from Casey than he anticipated, helped Matt get undressed, and helped him ease into the tub. Casey was trying to breathe regularly but not hard or fast and get himself going again, he seemed to be using all his energy to focus on that, so Kelly took it upon himself to get a wash rag, dip it in the lukewarm water, lather it up with soap and wash Casey. He scrubbed over Casey's upper back, around his neck, then grabbed Casey's hand and extended his arm out to the side and washed his armpit, then the other, then scrubbed over his chest.

"You doing alright, Casey?" he asked.

Matt weakly nodded in response, words seemed beyond him right now.

"You want to just soak for a while?"

He nodded again.

"Don't fall asleep in there," Kelly told him as he got up and headed for the door, "I'll be back."

He went back to the kitchen to see what Casey actually had on hand that would be any good for somebody who'd been puking all night. As usually, Casey's grocery shopping skills left something to be desired, there was no orange juice in the fridge, no canned soup in the cupboard, no saltine crackers. He opened the freezer door and felt a little relief when he saw a netted bag of large freezer pops that were frozen solid.

"Casey, you never cease to surprise me," he murmured to himself as he cut the bag open, took one out and cut the top off the plastic tube.

"Casey," he said as he headed back into the bathroom. He stopped and saw Casey had his head dropped to his chest and was about asleep. "Casey, wake up."

Reluctantly, Matt opened his eyes and looked at him.

"Here, eat this," Kelly said as he handed him the freezer pop.

Casey looked at it from both ends and finally saw where the opening had been cut, and using his thumb and index finger to break it up in the middle and squeeze the top half through the slit, put it in his mouth and sucked the top piece out and let it melt in his mouth before swallowing it.

"You feeling any better?" Kelly asked.

Casey shrugged, and seemed to have a little more energy for it now. "A little, I guess..."

Kelly watched as Casey made quick work of sucking the contents of the freezer pop out of its tube, until only a small amount of liquid was left in the bottom, then sucked that out as well, if he used anymore force he'd probably inhale the plastic wrapper from the inside-out. Severide reached for the bottle of Powerade on the counter, took the lid off and handed it to Casey and warned him, "Go a little slower with this, or you _will_ be sick again."

Casey slowly drank a little, then handed the bottle back to Kelly.

"You want to get out?" he asked.

Casey weakly nodded. Kelly saw him grab the edge of the tub with both hands, bracing himself to stand up, and he also saw all the muscles in Casey's arms twitching and tensing up, it was obvious that right now the Truck lieutenant didn't have the strength to pull himself to his feet.

"Okay, hang on."

Kelly grabbed a towel off the rack, then raised the drain plug, and as the water gurgled down the drain, he grabbed Casey by the arm and helped him up, wrapped the towel around his torso and helped him step over the edge of the tub. Casey shakily walked the short distance back to his bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed. Severide got a good look at him, he was still pale, he was shaky, and he looked ready to drop dead from exhaustion.

"Why don't you lie down for a while and try to get some sleep?" he suggested. "You'd feel better if you could rest."

Casey's eyes roamed around as if considering his options, then finally, almost reluctantly, he nodded.

"You want to get dressed first?"

Casey shook his head as he leaned back against the pillows, "I'm too tired."

Kelly turned the thermostat down so Casey wouldn't get hot, and draped the covers over him so he'd be comfortable. He also brought the Powerade and 7Up from the bathroom, and the waste basket just in case and set it near the head of the bed.

"Go to sleep, Casey," he told the blonde man who appeared to be struggling to stay awake, "I'll take care of everything around here."

"Thanks, Kelly," Matt closed his eyes, and in a few short minutes was in a dead sleep.

Kelly left the bedroom, left the door open incase Matt needed him, and went to work cleaning and disinfecting the bathroom.

Casey slept until 3 o' clock that afternoon, Kelly finally went in to wake him up since he needed to drink more than he had, and saw the blonde man laying flat on his back, an almost contented look on his face, his color had returned to normal. Kelly almost hated to wake him up, but...

"Casey...Casey..."

"Huh?" Matt slowly opened his eyes.

"How're you feeling?"

Casey moved around under the covers and half turned on his side and said decisively, "This isn't the flu."

"What do you mean?"

"Every time I get the flu, I get a sore throat so bad it feels like there're razor blades in it...and it burned all night and this morning from throwing up...but it doesn't hurt...I'm not _miserable_..."

"Then you should be able to drink some more." Kelly had taken the Powerade away earlier and put it back in the fridge to keep it cold. He held the bottle out for Casey to take, he did, and swallowed a mouthful.

"Doesn't hurt," he concluded.

"Maybe it's a stomach virus going around," Kelly thought. "You think you can eat something?"

Casey grimaced at the thought. "I don't know..."

"You are the worst shopper, you know that?" Kelly teased him, "You don't have any saltines...I _did_ find a carton of chicken broth...but I know the smell can be hit or miss when you're sick...think you can swallow some yogurt?"

Casey shrugged, "I guess so."

A sudden, strange sound grabbed both men's attention.

"What was that?" Kelly asked.

"My stomach," Casey said in disbelief.

"You are hungry then."

"That never happens with the flu either," Casey said, "not until the second day anyway."

"Well, you should be safe then," Kelly replied, "vanilla's nice and bland."

"You..." Casey looked at the clock, "you've been here all this time?"

"Yeah," Kelly said in a 'well duh!' tone, "where else would I be?"

Casey shook his head. "I don't know what to say..." he looked at Severide as he thought of something else, "If _you_ get whatever this is..."

"I'll be fine," Kelly insisted. "Feel like getting up?"

Casey moaned softly as he tried to sit up, every muscle in his body protesting after lying in one place for several hours, but he finally managed to straighten his back and bend his knees and said, "I'll get dressed and be out in a little while."

"I'll be here," Kelly said as he headed out the door.

* * *

Casey finally emerged from the bedroom dressed and slowly made his way over to the couch and settled down on it, feeling better than last night but still not back to normal yet. Kelly sat in a chair next to the couch and was scrolling through the channels and stopped on one. "Hey look, M*A*S*H is on."

"M*A*S*H is on 12 times a day," Casey said, "it's no big feat."

"Well it's just that good," Kelly replied.

Casey managed a weak smile as he adjusted himself against the cushions.

"You feeling alright?"

"Better, still tired," Casey said.

"You think you're gonna be up for coming in tomorrow?" Kelly asked.

"Probably," Casey answered.

Kelly knew _that_ was no big feat either, usually Casey would come in to work no matter how bad of shape he was in.

"Oh man," Casey groaned as something dawned on him, "if everybody else gets this, they're gonna have to close the firehouse."

"We survived the flu before, we will again," Kelly said. Then suddenly he threw Casey off guard by asking him, "You want me to stay here tonight?"

Casey turned his head and looked at him. "You don't have to do that."

"But do you want me to?"

Casey dropped his head to his chest, and the fact he wouldn't or _couldn't_ turn down the offer, told Severide all he needed to know.

"I was so sick last night," he said as he finally picked his head up, "I thought I was going to die."

And it was obvious that Casey wasn't convinced that it was all behind him.

"If it happens again, I'll rush you to Med myself," Kelly told him.


	7. Chapter 7

Casey _did_ show up on shift the next morning. He'd gotten through the night without any further issues, all the same he was leery of eating anything and had only had two pieces of plain toast for breakfast and a cup of black coffee. He'd also, unbeknownst to anybody, shown up at 51 with a bottle of Pepto-Bismol in his bag that he stored in one of the drawers in his desk. After the morning brief he'd spotted a pink bakery box of doughnuts open in the common room, and he was half tempted to pick one up, they looked good, but his better judgment won out and he left them alone.

Less than an hour into shift, something happened. Otis, Cruz and Mouch all started complaining of feeling lousy, which soon gave way to nausea, and half of the Truck company was violently ill simultaneously, and very quickly after that, Capp and Tony were also doubled over puking their guts up. Casey watched this unfolding with a horrible sense of déjà vu, he looked at Severide and the two just watched all this with no idea what was going on.

Boden's attention was quickly drawn to the situation and he ordered everybody go to Med to get checked out and for Haz-Mat to come in and sweep the firehouse in an attempt to get to the bottom of it, and the health department as well.

Half an hour later at Med, Casey and Severide sat together in the waiting room, waiting to be examined everybody else, still trying to figure out what was going on.

"You ever get the flu in the middle of the day?" Casey asked out of nowhere.

"Huh?" Kelly turned to him.

"I was feeling like hell the other night...usually when I get the flu it doesn't really kick in until I wake up the next morning...I don't ever remember just getting sick in the middle of the day...and as far as I could tell, everybody else was fine when they walked in this morning...that's pretty quick to just get sick, isn't it?"

Kelly shrugged, "Never thought about it, I guess."

Casey pressed his fist against the side of his head and shook his head, "Something's not right, Kelly."

"What're you thinking, Matt?"

"I don't know..." Casey looked at him suspiciously, "how are _you_ feeling?"

"Me?" Kelly shrugged again, "I feel fine."

"Guess that's something," Casey replied.

* * *

"Hazmat didn't find anything, neither did the health inspector," Herrmann said as everybody returned to the station house.

"And by the time everybody got to Med, there wasn't anything left for the doctors to test," Casey said, another surge of déjà vu coursing through him as he remembered throwing up until there wasn't _anything_ left. He turned towards Kelly and said under his breath, "I told you."

"Told him what?" Herrmann asked.

Casey looked at Herrmann, and after a brief pause, answered, "I got sick two days ago, I told Severide if it's some kind of flu, and the rest of the house gets it, 51's going to have to close until further notice."

"This doesn't feel like any flu to me," Otis said as he sat down. "Feels like ptomaine poisoning."

"What's that?" Cruz asked.

"Food poisoning," Casey answered as an idea occurred to him and he headed to the kitchen.

"One form of it," Otis replied, "I got it once eating at one of those fried chicken restaurants, so did most of the other customers...turned out that night the fry vats were only operating at half the temperature they should've been, I was sick for a week."

"Well that can't be what-" Mouch made a gagging sound in the back of his throat and swallowed cautiously, "that can't be what this is, we didn't eat the same stuff."

"What about breakfast?" Otis replied.

"Hey, there wasn't anything wrong with it," Cruz told him, "I cooked it myself."

"You're not the best cook."

"Hey!" Herrmann broke it up, "don't start getting snippy, I feel like I'm at my in-laws' for dinner."

"It _could've_ been breakfast," Otis said.

"Then how did Casey get sick two days ago?" Cruz replied.

"What happened to the doughnuts from this morning?" Casey asked as he returned to the room.

Otis groaned, "You actually thinking about eating?"

"No," Casey replied, "Who all ate them?"

Hands went up, Casey looked around and did a head count. Half the guys from Engine, most of the guys from Truck, and everybody on Squad had their hands raised.

"Can't be the doughnuts then," Otis said, "only half of the people who ate them got sick."

"But where are they?" Casey asked, "I can't find the box."

Nobody could answer that, the last anybody saw, they were on the table in the kitchen.

"Who brought them in?" Casey asked.

Nobody answered but everybody started looking around at everybody else, but nobody would take the claim for it. Casey looked around at all of them, and finally settled his eyes on Kelly, and asked rhetorically, "What the hell's going on?"

* * *

The next day Casey was still poring over the question of what made everybody sick when there was a knock at his door. He went to see who it was, and it turned out to be Severide, a huge Tupperware bowl of something in his hands.

"Hey, Cathy was sorry to hear you weren't feeling well the other day, so she made some soup."

"Oh..." Casey looked at the large bowl tinted red full of what he guessed to be chicken soup and forced out, "She really shouldn't have...did she make some for everybody else too?"

"For Otis, Cruz, and Capp anyway," he said as he entered the apartment and headed over to the kitchen.

Casey felt the wheels turning in his head. "The ones who came over for dinner."

"Yeah," Kelly said as he put the bowl on the counter, "she was worried that they might've gotten sick from something that she made that night...but that's impossible because they're the only ones that had dinner with us that night, and half the firehouse got sick yesterday."

Casey blinked, "And you ate the dinner, you didn't get sick...and you ate some of the doughnuts too...so that can't be it...there wasn't any one thing that all of us ate on the same day...so what could it be?"

"Who knows?" Kelly shrugged. "Maybe it _is_ a stomach virus."

Kelly peeled the lid off the bowl, the plastic was nearly hot, and smelled the contents inside, yep, chicken soup, with, he looked in and tried to make out what was floating in it, thick homemade egg noodles.

"Have you tried any of this?" Casey asked.

Kelly shook his head.

Casey knew he was reaching, and he knew he should be ashamed of himself for even thinking of it. But he looked over at Severide and suggested, "Get a couple bowls and we'll both try it."

Kelly didn't have to be told twice. Casey dished up a piping hot bowl for both of them, it about burned his tongue and it was loaded with salt, but it tasted alright. But, as he looked over at Kelly, who had already inhaled most of the noodles from his, he knew that time would be the true factor that decided if it was alright or not.

He knew it sounded paranoid, and stupid, but he just couldn't shake the feeling that his illness wasn't just random. If there was any chance the soup had been spiked with something, then Severide would also be feeling the effects of it, and if not...then he was wrong and needed to pull himself together. But the truth was he felt better having somebody with him, who if any tampering had taken place, would also be feeling the effects of it before too long. Not that he would wish what he went through on Kelly or anybody else, but if he got sick too, it would be harder to brush off as mere coincidence.

And yet...if that _were_ true, how could Casey account for anything? Five of them had eaten the dinner Cathy made, Casey was the only one who got sick afterwards. Nobody else from 51 got sick until 2 days later, much too long for it to be food poisoning from the dinner party. And had she had something to do with the doughnuts yesterday? Nobody could even answer who got the doughnuts, how they had gotten there, according to everybody it seemed that they were just _there_ when they showed up. But that didn't make any sense either since there was always somebody at the fire house and somebody should've seen whoever brought the box in...unless it was somebody on First Watch, unless they were brought in before shift change. And if that was true, that left Cathy in the clear, but it still didn't make any sense.

But what did that prove either? Twice as many people had eaten the doughnuts than had gotten sick, and assuming they had been tampered with, it was impossible to know who would pick which ones, there would be no rhyme or reason to know who would get sick and who wouldn't. Just like dinner the other night. If Cathy had dished up the plates for everybody herself, that might suggest she could've tampered with Casey's...but that's not what happened, everybody dished up their own food, and again, it would've been impossible to know who would pick what, or how much, it would've been impossible to know that Casey would be at the end of the line and wouldn't get his plate until half the food was already gone.

Casey shook his head and wanted to kick himself. He _was_ being paranoid. They were exposed to hundreds of germs a day from the people they encountered on calls, it _could_ very well be the flu or some other virus that was working its way through the Chicago population right now.

You're being paranoid, he told himself. It was just a stomach bug, he kept reminding himself.

* * *

The next day Casey had gotten a call from Chicago Med about the blood and urine tests they'd run the day everybody came in, and Will Halstead had requested he come down in person to hear the news of their findings.

Casey was already sitting in a chair when Will told him, if he hadn't been, he surely would've collapsed on the floor in disbelief. Instead he gripped the arms of the chair as if he was holding on for his very life.

"This can't be right," he said, "there has to be some mistake."

"Now there's no need to panic, Matt," Will assured him, "there are a lot of ways a person can be exposed to arsenic and not realize it."

Casey shook his head, "No...the test has to be wrong."

"Have you responded to any calls lately at glass factories, wood treatment plants, any place that manufactures or uses pesticides?"

"No...I don't think so...I don't know," Casey was just about beyond the ability to even think.

"Do you eat a lot of rice?"

"Not really, why?"

"It's full of arsenic...in moderation it shouldn't be anything to worry about, but we know that's not a word most people are familiar with these days."

Casey tried to make sense of what he was hearing. "Why is rice full of arsenic?"

"There's a lot of arsenic in the ground water, it also dissolves off rocks and from the soil, and can all be taken in by the crops," Will said. "And as far as the ground water's concerned, what's already naturally occurring is one thing, there's another issue of the old cemeteries around here."

Casey looked at him and raised an eyebrow, "Why?"

"It wasn't uncommon for arsenic to be used for embalming in the early 20th century, that would already leak into the ground water, but as much rain as we've been getting lately it's not impossible that some of the old graves got flooded and washed the rest of the arsenic down into the city water. But all of those would've been more gradual buildups and you likely wouldn't have experienced any symptoms from it. Since we already know you tested positive for arsenic, what I would like to do is run a hair and fingernail test to give us a better idea of how long you've been exposed."

Casey looked down at his short nails he kept clipped close to the brim and told Will, "I don't think you'll be able to find much."

"We can get a better idea testing your hair," Will said.

"Is...is...I mean...what happens now?" Casey asked.

"If you haven't been exposed long then there shouldn't be much to worry about, if we can find out how you were exposed and cut off that source, you'll be fine," Will told him.

Casey finally thought of something. "What about everybody else? Did their tests come back with arsenic too?"

Will looked at him and answered, "No."

* * *

Casey felt his hands shaking and the muscles in his arms clenching as he walked up the steps to Severide's door. He didn't really remember leaving the hospital and driving over here, and he didn't feel in any condition to drive back to his own apartment anytime soon, so he hoped Kelly didn't mind having the company. He knocked on the door and anxiously waited.

He heard the locks being undone, the door opened and this time it was Kelly standing there. "Casey, what's up?"

"Can I come in?"

Kelly held the door wide, "Yeah, sure, what's on your mind?"

"Uh...I've got...I got some news..." Casey found himself pacing around the living room, "and I don't...uh...how are _you_ doing? Have you been sick?"

Kelly shook his head, "No, I'm fine. What's wrong?"

"Will called me...he said...they found something in the blood test they took...he thinks it's why I got sick."

"Well that's good, isn't it?" At the look Casey shot him, Kelly elaborated, "I mean if they know what it is they can treat you for it, right?"

"I hope so," Casey felt his legs getting weak and shaky, "Uh...I..."

"You better sit down before you fall down, Casey," Kelly said as he lightly nudged Matt over to the couch, "now what's the matter?"

"Uh...Will said that...they found...I have..."

"Kelly, who's here?"

Casey all but jumped at the sound of Cathy's voice, he turned and saw her coming out of the kitchen.

"Oh, hi, Matt," she said, "I just got dinner ready, you want to join us?"

"Uh, no," he said as he forced himself to his feet, "I have to get going."

"Whoa, wait a minute, Casey," Kelly grabbed him by the arm, "what did the doctor say?"

Casey turned back towards him, and not turning his head, merely moving his eyes to look through the corners of them, he looked at Cathy, who stood in the middle of the room looking at him, no readable emotions whatsoever, but suspecting she too was waiting to hear his announcement.

"He...uh...said it was food poisoning..." a news story he'd seen earlier that week came to him and he added, "he said there's been a recall of frozen meat for possible E. coli...thinks that's what it was."

"Well that's got to be a relief to at least know what caused it," Kelly said.

"Uh...yeah...I'm sorry to barge in, I just thought I'd tell you...did you get your tests back yet?"

Kelly shook his head. "Haven't heard anything."

Casey nodded his head, "Probably nothing then...I've got to go..." he turned and headed for the door, but looked over his shoulder back to the blonde woman in the room and said on his way out, "Thanks again for the soup."

He closed the door behind him, and all but ran down the steps towards his truck. Once at the curb, he kicked himself for the way he'd just acted. What the hell was wrong with him? Arsenic, he had arsenic poisoning, why was that so hard to tell Kelly once he realized Cathy was in the room? If he was the only one who tested positive then that proved she couldn't have had anything to do with it. But then _where_ did he get it? And how long had he been exposed and not known it?

* * *

"Hair doesn't lie, Matt," Will told him the next time he came in, "you've had a sizable amount of arsenic in your system less than a month."

"You can tell that?" Casey asked.

"Drugs, chemicals, metals, they store up in the hair just like the rest of the body, we average one inch of growth per month, got a sample approximately three inches in length, only the newest growth contains arsenic. So it's obviously _very_ recent."

"Could it have been something I ate?" Casey asked.

"Well if I had to guess I _would_ wager you consumed the amount instead of just absorbing it through the skin. And an amount like this, you would've gotten sick fairly quickly after eating it," Will said. "Does anything come to mind?"

Casey shook his head. "Not really." The last thing he needed was Halstead also thinking he was going nuts. "But if...if I get sick again, can I come back and..."

"We'll run the test again and if you get here _when_ you first get sick we can check your stomach contents," Will told him. "You really should've come here the first night, Matt."

"I know, but I just thought it was the flu."

"People come here for flu all the time," Will pointed out.

"Yeah, and it annoys the hell out of everybody working here," Casey replied.

Half of Will's mouth turned upward in an amused smirk, "Not _exactly_, in any case, if you'd come in here as sick as you were, that would've fallen under 'acceptable flu cases'." A small laugh escaped him.

"Did you find out what made everybody else sick?" Casey asked.

"Sorry, Matt, patient privacy laws, you know that."

"But you're _sure_ they don't have it too?"

Will merely nodded in response, as usual at least one toe over the line of what was appropriate practice as a doctor.

Casey didn't have any idea what it all meant, but he didn't like it.


	8. Chapter 8

"What did the doctor _really_ say?" Kelly asked Casey during next shift.

The question caught Casey off guard, but he was quick not to let it show. "What do you mean?"

"I know you, Casey, you weren't all freaked out over E. coli, what's up?"

Casey looked around to make sure nobody else was paying attention, he leaned over towards Kelly and said in a low voice, "He said I have arsenic in my blood."

The surprise at this news was obvious on Kelly's face, but it quickly took the backseat to his curiosity about, "Why didn't you tell me that in the first place?"

"I...was going to, but...I didn't think Cathy would take the news well, I didn't want her to overreact."

"What's she got to do with this?" Kelly asked.

Casey shrugged, "Something like this isn't a bombshell you just drop on a new girlfriend, Will doesn't know where it came from, all he knows is that the exposure's just recent, thinks it could've come from a job we worked...has anybody said anything to you about their blood work?"

Kelly shook his head, "Nah, I haven't heard anything yet."

"And you're still okay?" Casey asked.

"Yeah," he answered.

Casey nodded, "That's good."

"So what's Will say to do about it?" Kelly asked.

"Uh...mainly he said if I get sick again, come in and get tested so they can figure out where it's coming from, if it keeps happening they'll have to start treatments for it," Casey said. "But for now he suggested putting cilantro in my food, apparently it pushes metal out of your blood."

Kelly didn't say anything but Casey could see a hint of terror in his eyes at this news. Casey bit the inside of his cheek as he thought about what he was going to say next, and he confessed to Kelly, "I thought I was going to die that night...and I'm more terrified now. What if they _can't_ find out what's causing it?"

He felt Kelly's hand on his back, he looked at the Squad lieutenant who had closed the gap between them without Casey even noticing. Kelly knew it was a situation beyond either of their control, but he did what he always did and tried to assure Casey, "We'll figure it out, it'll be alright."

* * *

Present-

"Step behind the screen, remove your clothes, put them in the bags on the floor so marked," the doctor told Casey. He'd been briefly looked over for any obvious injuries and blood samples had been taken from his hands and his skin.

Casey slowly stepped behind the screen but was reluctant to do what the doctor said. He looked over the screen at him and asked, "Like a rape kit?"

The two cops in the room turned their heads at his comment and looked at him. He didn't care. He wanted to make it clear, "That's not what happened, Kelly didn't-"

Then he saw the camera they were going to use to photograph any injuries he had, and he knew his night was about to get even worse.

"Do I really have to do this?" he asked.

"It'll be a lot easier if you just cooperate," the doctor told him.

Casey sunk back behind the screen and slowly started to remove his clothes. The bags on the floor were clearly marked: shirt, pants, socks, underwear. He looked behind the screen, figuring there would be something for him to change into, a set of scrubs, a hospital gown, but there was nothing.

"Uh..." he turned back towards the doctor, "what do I do afterwards?"

"You're going to be examined," the doctor said as if it was the simplest concept in the world.

"And photographed?" Casey asked.

"That's standard procedure."

Something told Casey that there was actually very little that was 'standard' about this, but he was in no position to argue and he knew it. He was finally given a hospital gown to change into, but it did little to preserve any dignity for him as it had to be opened, and lifted at various points through the examination. The doctor dictated into a headset recorder as he looked Casey over, detailing the injuries on his body as the police took photographs of them, and Casey tried to block it all out, he was humiliated and felt degraded but that took backseat to his main priority.

"Has there been any update on Kelly Severide?" he asked during the examination. "He was taken into surgery earlier, does anybody know what's going on?"

If they did, nobody was talking. Casey really felt torn right now. On one hand he thought back to the more than 15 years that he and Kelly knew each other and were friends, _close_ friends, he would've sworn he knew everything about Kelly. Then he thought back to how fast and how far things had gone to hell between them in the last 2 months, and it didn't seem possible that it was even the same person. It was like somehow overnight, Severide had turned into somebody that Casey didn't even know. He never would've thought it possible that someone he'd known for so long could change so much.

Just as the exam was being wrapped up, Casey heard an alarm going off from somewhere in the hospital and he knew that it meant a code was being called. He tried to run out of the room as he saw several members of the medical staff rushing by, but was grabbed back by the two cops, he struggled with them and tried to get loose.

"Is that Kelly?" he needed to know. He had to know what was going on. Was Kelly alive? Was he crashing on the operating table? Could they revive him? Why wouldn't anybody tell him what was happening?

* * *

6 weeks ago-

Casey had no repeat incidences that prompted a return to Med, and eventually the word came back that everybody who had gotten sick at the firehouse, had tested positive for bacteria likely contributed to under-cooked food they'd eaten hours or days before they started throwing up. But nobody could remember eating anything that would fit that category, and in time everybody forgot about it and moved on with their daily lives.

And during that time, Cathy Woods was still a frequent guest at Kelly's apartment. Casey avoided going over in the morning if he could, though a couple times he had to to discuss something with Kelly before they went in to work and he couldn't get him on the phone.

This time, Kelly was riding to work with him that morning because his car was in the shop with a broken belt. Cathy answered the door, this time she was dressed in one of Kelly's Blackhawks jerseys, which came perilously close to showing Casey what underwear she had on that morning, and for both their sakes he sincerely hoped she _was_.

"Hi, Matt," she greeted him, still too cheerily for his liking.

"Hi, Cathy," he said, trying to be civil, "is Kelly up?"

"Oh he's getting ready, why don't you come on in?" she asked, and Casey was not oblivious to the seductive undertone in her voice.

"No thanks," he replied.

"Why don't you get a cup of coffee while you wait?" she asked.

"No thanks," he answered, trying very hard to _stay_ civil with her. "I'm good."

"Oh you are so _cuuute_," she said.

Casey had to grit his teeth together not to say anything. That was something that she'd started doing about a week after he first met her, and it annoyed the hell out of him, and he suspected that she knew it and that was precisely why she did it.

"Yeah, whatever," he said obliviously.

He'd just opened his mouth to say something else when, quicker than his eye could see it, Cathy put her hand on his chest. Not a single additional muscle in her whole body had moved, she stood there and looked at him with a sly, inviting smile, and just barely moving her hand, he felt her groping him through the fabric of his shirt.

Casey didn't move a muscle, didn't say a word. He was well aware he was putting himself in a bad position by not doing anything but he had a sneaking suspicion it was a lesser damning decision than if he _had_ responded to the touch. The suspicions he'd been harboring since Kelly first started seeing her all came back at full force, either she was hoping Severide would catch them doing something, or she had another man somewhere nearby who she hoped would 'catch' her here with one of them. Either way he didn't know what she hoped to gain from it but-

Another 'faster than the eye' movement occurred and he felt her hand trail down to his stomach, and her smile got notably bigger as she commented, "My, my, you're a lot stronger than you look, aren't you?"

Casey tried not to physically respond but he knew he felt his eyes widening as he realized her hand was slowly trailing down lower than that. It wasn't that he was worried about having an actual physical reaction, but he _was_ worried about how far this was going to go and how damning it was going to look on him if something didn't happen right away to stop whatever the hell she was trying to do.

He heard the bedroom door open in the apartment, and again, quicker than he realized what was happening, Cathy's hand was gone and she was back in her own neutral corner.

"Hey Casey," Kelly said as he came into Matt's view, "You been here long?"

"Uh, no, just got here," he replied. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah, hang on."

Kelly grabbed his bag, then Casey watched as he stopped long enough to kiss Cathy goodbye, and followed him out to the truck.

* * *

About halfway to the station house, Casey decided it was better if he was up front about what happened instead of letting Cathy try twisting it her own way later.

"Kelly...there's something I need to tell you," he said, glancing at the Squad lieutenant through the corner of his eye. "And I don't want you getting upset."

"What is it?" Severide asked, clearly oblivious to what it could possibly be.

"While I was waiting for you to get ready...Cathy...she came on to me. Nothing happened, but, I don't want you finding out about it later and getting the wrong idea."

The silence he was met with was unnerving. He turned his head and saw Severide staring at him, and he couldn't figure out if Kelly was about to blow a gasket or double over laughing.

"What?" he asked, a small titter under his voice.

"Cathy came on to me," Casey repeated. "I didn't do anything, you know I would never do that to you."

A small, isolated laugh escaped from Kelly, then another, and another, "What're you talking about?"

"She...never mind," Casey said, already knowing that this had been a mistake.

"No, what did she do?" Kelly asked him.

Casey stopped at the next red light. And without warning, he reached over and put his hand on Kelly's chest and ran it down to his abdomen. It was so sudden and unexpected that Kelly fell back against the seat, wriggling and half-laughing.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked.

"That's what she did," Casey said. "And I don't know why she did it, but I didn't want you finding out from her later."

Now Kelly was straight up laughing. The light changed and Casey stepped on the gas and continued towards 51.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"You are," Kelly answered, he reached over and slapped Casey on the shoulder, jolting him. "She wasn't coming onto you."

"If she wasn't she's got one hell of a way of saying 'good morning'."

"It's just the way she is, Casey, she doesn't mean anything by it," he said.

Casey looked at him skeptically, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, she's harmless."

Casey looked to the road ahead and tried to brush it off. "If you say so. I just didn't want there to be any trouble."

Kelly was laughing so hard it sounded like he was past the ability to even breathe. He leaned over and told Casey, "I love you, buddy," and kissed him on the side of the head.

"Ew! Not while I'm driving!" Casey said.

Kelly leaned against him, a series of high pitched wheezes escaping from his throat as he struggled to find his voice again and said, "We gotta get you a girlfriend, then you can stop imagining Cathy flirting with you."

"I can assure you," Casey said, struggling to keep the disgust out of his tone, "That's the last thing I'd want to imagine."

Kelly just chuckled in response.


	9. Chapter 9

Cathy Woods was a frequent visitor to Firehouse 51 over the next several shifts, and she always brought something for the guys. One day it was a double batch of brownies, the next shift it was two containers of cookies, everybody else dove into them but Casey kept his distance. Nobody got sick, but Casey still didn't trust anything that she made, but he knew if he mentioned any of it to anybody else, they'd think he was nuts.

Severide especially was beyond reasoning with, half the time when there wasn't anything going on between calls, Casey actually found him just staring off into space, that same strange look on his face that Casey had been trying to place, and he finally came up with where he'd seen it before.

One day after a call, Kelly had made his way into Casey's quarters and made himself at home on Matt's bunk as usual, and after a few minutes of small talk, he said what was really on his mind.

"I really love her, Casey."

The words rang through the room like a gunshot, Casey couldn't believe what he was hearing, but he didn't say anything. He turned in his chair and looked at Kelly, and just waited to see what happened next.

He didn't have to wait long, Kelly told him, "It feels right this time, Matt...for the first time in a long time...I haven't felt like this since Renee."

That clinched it. There was no way that Casey could tell Severide what he was thinking. He saw Kelly's eyes literally light up as he talked about it. He _knew_ he hadn't seen Kelly like this in a long time, he knew there'd been a reason for it, and now he knew.

"That..." he forced himself to respond, "That's great, Kelly...I'm...happy, for you."

He didn't like it, he didn't like it whatsoever. He didn't care if he wasn't being fair in that he'd decided from the first time he met Cathy that he didn't like her, there was something off about her, and he was the only one who could see it. And he knew Severide was never going to see anything he didn't want to see, so there was no point trying to talk to him about it, he had to grit his teeth and pretend he was happy for his best friend, but Casey just knew that Kelly was making the worst mistake of his life. But he had no idea how to help. He decided for now all he could do was wait and see, maybe, possibly, hopefully, something would happen that would show Kelly Cathy's true colors, and he'd see her for what she really was, and he'd get out of that relationship quickly. He _hoped_.

* * *

Casey turned himself around on his bar stool and looked towards the door, then turned back around to face the bar. Severide was supposed to have been there an hour ago, they'd made plans to hit Molly's that night, for the first time in weeks. They'd made plans several times before but at the last minute Kelly always called him with news they had to reschedule, something unexpected came up. This time nothing had come up and they'd planned to hit Molly's, have a few drinks and see what happened next. Casey had sent Kelly a text message when he arrived at the bar, but hadn't heard back from him. He'd figured Kelly was on the way and went on in and ordered a beer, and waited. And waited...and waited...60 minutes later, Casey was starting to get a good idea that Kelly wasn't coming. He'd sent half a dozen text messages, expecting some kind of explanation, he checked his phone again, even though he'd checked it about every single minute he was at Molly's, and there was still nothing.

"Something bugging you, Casey?" Herrmann asked as he came over.

"Hermann, did you hear Severide say if he was doing something tonight?" Casey asked.

"Uh, no, I didn't, why?"

"Oh...nothing...I thought he was going to be here...and he wasn't in earlier?"

"Ain't seen him since we opened the doors," Christopher answered, "everything alright?"

"Yeah...I've sent him six messages and haven't heard back...he's probably just...having trouble with his phone."

"Yeah well that's no surprise," Herrmann said, "last week I spent 2 hours at the place we have our phone plan through, trying to figure out why they shut our phones off when I _know_ I got the bill paid on time. Before that happened, Cindy was on my case because I wasn't answering when she called...no calls came through."

Casey just nodded. "Probably something like that."

"You know who his provider is?" Christopher asked, "Cuz if it's the same sons of bitches we got, I-"

"I don't think it is, Herrmann," Casey replied, not in the mood to hear Herrmann ramble on for half an hour.

"Well, I'm sure there's a logical explanation for it," Herrmann said.

Casey nodded, finished his beer and said, "I think I'll call it a night." He paid for his drink and added, "Thanks, Herrmann," as he hopped up off the bar stool.

He left Molly's, got in his truck and started to head for home. Halfway there he changed his mind and went the other way, and swung by Kelly's apartment. He pulled up at the curb and saw the Mustang parked, the lights were out inside the building. Casey had half a mind to march up there, beat on the door and find out what was going on. But he was too tired to get into it tonight and decided to go home before he did something he'd regret. He'd never admit it to anyone, he half refused to believe it himself, but he got a sinking feeling in his chest at the idea that he'd been slighted for Severide's new girlfriend.

When he got home he headed to the bedroom, shed his clothes and settled under the covers, which were slightly chilled that night. He lay there in the dark just staring at the ceiling for a while, then finally felt himself nodding off.

The next thing he heard was his phone buzzing with an incoming call. He reached for the nightstand, grabbed the phone, and saw it was Severide's number, he also saw that it was 1:30 A.M. This had better be good.

"What is it, Kelly?" he asked, forgoing any niceties.

He waited a couple seconds, then opened his eyes wider in puzzlement at the silence that met him.

"Kelly?" he said into the phone. "Hello?"

Nothing. Then a _click_.

Casey tiredly tossed his phone back on the nightstand and settled back under the covers.

* * *

The next morning, Severide answered on the third ring.

"Hey Casey, what's up?"

Matt was glad Kelly couldn't see him, or he would not have appreciated the look on Casey's face right now.

"So your phone's working today?"

"What do you mean?"

"I called you last night, I texted you, you never answered me. Then your phone called me again last night and nobody talked," he explained.

There was a small pause on the line, before Kelly replied, "What are you talking about?"

"You never showed up at Molly's, I thought something happened, I sent you six messages."

"Casey, I don't know what you're talking about. I never got anything from you," Kelly told him.

Casey blinked. "What? That's impossible."

"There was nothing on my phone last night, or this morning," Kelly said.

"Then you need to take it in to the shop," Casey said. "I can understand missing one or two calls or texts, but I tried getting you for an hour. Where were you?"

"You know where," Kelly replied, "I told you I couldn't make it last night."

Casey felt something in him drop. "No you didn't."

"Yes I did. I had a migraine last night and went to bed early."

"What?" Casey blinked. "You didn't tell me that."

"I had Cathy send you a text."

"Well I didn't get it," Casey said.

"Oh, sorry..."

Casey sighed, "It's no biggie..."

"I'm sorry, Casey, I didn't realize you were waiting for me."

"It's okay...we'll try again some other night," Casey responded.

Then he thought of something and asked Kelly, "There's nothing on your phone from last night? No missed calls? No texts?"

"Nope, there's nothing," Kelly answered.

Casey slowly closed his eyes and shook his head in confusion. But he let it go and asked Severide, "How're you today?"

"Good, headache's gone."

Casey merely nodded even though he knew Kelly couldn't see it. "That's good."

"Casey, I'm really sorry about this...what do you say we get together after next shift and do something?"

"Yeah, that'll be fine," Casey answered with a half shrug.

"Great, we'll iron out the details later," Severide told him.

* * *

"Iron out the details," Casey grumbled to himself as he peeled off his jacket and threw it on a chair after he got in the door of his apartment. "A steamroller would be more like it."

He just collapsed on the couch when he heard his phone blip from an incoming text message. He took it out of his pocket and saw a short message. 'Where R U?'

He replied, 'Home'.

A couple minutes later another message came through. 'Why didn't u come?'

"Seriously?" Casey asked himself. Instead of replying he put his phone on the coffee table and curled up in a ball on the couch, exhausted, and ready to call it a night.

Clearly Severide had other plans, his phone started ringing.

"What?" Casey answered.

"What the hell's going on?" Kelly asked.

"You tell me," Casey said, "I went to the address you gave me, and it was the wrong club, on the _other_ end of town, Kelly."

"What're you talking about?"

"You gave me the wrong directions, and you never answered me when I called you about it...I tried working my way back but I got tired of checking every club to see if you were there, and I just came home. Don't tell me, you didn't get any calls."

"I couldn't hear my phone ringing in the club, I got it out to text you and saw the missed calls...I didn't give you the wrong address."

"Obviously you did because you weren't at any of the places I went to," Casey replied.

Severide was adamant, "I _know_ I didn't."

Casey rubbed his eyes and grunted, "Whatever, I don't really care, I'm beat, I'm going to bed. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

He hung up before Kelly could say anything else, he really wasn't interested in hearing any of it. Casey tossed and turned on the couch a few times, trying to ignore what he was thinking, and feeling. He wasn't just tired, he wasn't just angry at Kelly. The word didn't come to him easily, and he felt stupid for even thinking about it, he was _hurt_. He beat himself up over this fact.

You're not just paranoid, you're being stupid, he told himself. And he felt even more stupid when he felt his cheeks getting hot and felt his eyes burning, felt the tears starting to build up that he tried to stop, but they persisted. Casey really wanted to kick himself. He was acting like a dumb kid jealous because his best friend started hanging out with someone else. But at the same time, it was true. Kelly was so engrossed in his new girlfriend that he was either ignoring Casey, he'd been blowing him off for two weeks any time they had plans, or he couldn't keep his mind on what he was doing. Severide insisted he didn't give Casey the wrong address, maybe in his mind he was convinced of that, but the facts said otherwise. Maybe Kelly was just so preoccupied with Cathy that he wasn't even paying attention to what he was doing. It could be an honest mistake, they'd all done it, write something down or type something up and don't double-check to see that it's the right information, that would be understandable; but giving him the wrong address, not answering his calls and only thinking to ask of his whereabouts over an hour later, none of this was like Kelly at all. And Casey was starting to worry it was only going to get worse.

As much as Casey tried to get a grip and pull himself together, he just couldn't, instead he felt his eyes burning even more as more tears worked their way loose, and soon after that he felt a spasm sensation tightening in his chest. He felt like an idiot about it, but he couldn't stop himself, he turned on his side and half buried his face in his pillow, and laid there in the dark and waited for the tears to stop coming.

* * *

Casey wasn't sure what he was expecting to see when he drove past Severide's apartment the next morning, but as luck would have it, he saw Cathy coming down the sidewalk and heading out to Kelly's Mustang. Casey pulled his truck up and got out.

"Hey Cathy, you got a minute?" he asked.

She turned at the sound of her name, and for a split second there was a look of surprise on her face, but it quickly passed and was replaced by her huge, phony grin.

"Matt! What're you doing here?"

"Did you happen to give Kelly the directions for the club last night?" He'd had a hunch and thought he'd play it and see what happened.

"Yeah," she answered, "it's a great place, we love it, you should've been there."

"I was going to be."

Casey felt his heart speed up a beat as he realized that what he'd planned to ask her just went out the window, and a new and more disturbing thought came to mind.

"You gave me the wrong directions," Casey said. He hadn't mean it to come out that way, but there it was, a straight up accusation, and he had nothing to prove it, but he knew it was right.

The blonde woman's grin didn't waver a bit. "What are you talking about?"

"You intentionally gave me the wrong directions so I'd spend all night trying to find Severide," Casey said.

Her smile gradually dropped, but her face gave absolutely nothing away. Her eyes were dead locked on him and she was perfectly stone faced as she said to him in a matter-of-fact tone, "No, Matt, you're _confused_, I gave you the right directions, you just went to the wrong place."

"I went where you told me to go," Casey said.

"Then you should've been at the club with us," she insisted. "Face it, Matt, you made a mistake, and now you're blaming me for it."

"I didn't make a mistake."

"Sure you did," she responded, never batting an eye.

"And you never sent me a text saying Kelly couldn't make it to Molly's."

"I did so," she told him.

"I tried getting a hold of him for an hour, there was _no_ message," Casey stood his ground.

"Yes there was, you have it wrong," Cathy told him.

He had to hand it to her, she could look him dead in the eyes and lie through her teeth, and he knew this and he still had an inkling in him to believe her because she was just so convincing.

* * *

Instinctively Casey knew that he wasn't confused about anything, but knowing it didn't stop him from second guessing himself after he confronted Cathy. He even found himself looking through his phone, double checking the directions to the club, and searching for any calls or texts from the night at Molly's. Nothing. And he knew he was being stupid by doubting his own judgment just because Cathy said so, but there was just something about how firm she was in her convictions about somebody else being wrong, even if you knew better, you still couldn't help but think she might be right.

"Hell with it all," Casey said with a sigh as he tossed his phone on the nightstand.

He got undressed, crawled into bed, and hoped for a few oblivious hours where he didn't have to think about anything that was going on.

That however, was shot to hell sometime during the night when he was awakened by his phone buzzing. Casey fumbled in the dark for it and finally felt the phone and picked it up, just making out Severide's number as he answered, "Hello?"

Before he even got the full word out, he was jolted wide awake by the shock of loud and obscene breathing and moaning coming through the phone.

"What the hell?" Casey looked at his phone then put it back towards his ear, "Kelly?"

His ear was assaulted by the heavy breathing and the high pitched grunts and groans, and tempted as he was to hang up then and there, his morbid curiosity got the better of him and he listened long enough to confirm that it was the sound of _two_ people, a woman, and a man. The obscene noises got louder, and impossibly louder still, there were some incoherent words and a few high pitched screams and Casey finally disconnected the call, and threw his phone across the room. What the hell was going on?

He didn't go back to sleep easily after that, and it was a long night.

When the sun came up the next morning Casey felt like he'd never been to bed. He forced himself to crawl out of bed and look in the mirror, he looked like a zombie and he felt the part too. Every time he thought he'd been about to fall asleep, the whole obscene ruckus over the phone played over in his memory and haunted him. Just _thinking_ about it made him nauseous, he couldn't even bring himself to consciously acknowledge what it was he'd heard last night. Who would do such a thing? _Why_? He couldn't call Severide back and ask him what the hell it was all about, for one thing he was too embarrassed to make that call and have that conversation with his best friend. For another, the way things had been going lately, Kelly would probably insist once again that he hadn't called Casey. So far Matt hadn't been able to come up with any explanation for how Severide's phone could be calling him every night, with nobody on the line, and it turned out each time that Kelly had never called him. If he told Severide now that not only had his phone called him last night, but that he could hear Kelly having sex over the phone, Severide would think for sure that Casey had finally lost his mind.

"Maybe I have," he said to himself in utter hopelessness.


	10. Chapter 10

Casey didn't sleep well after that incident, his first night home after the next shift, he tossed and turned all night and had strange dreams the whole time. When he woke up in the morning he felt like he'd never been to sleep. But he heard his phone ping with an incoming text message, so he got up to see who and what it was.

His eyes bugged out to their maximum capacity and he felt his jaw drop as he saw the pictures of Cathy Woods that had been sent to him. He'd gotten a good ogle at the pics she'd sent Kelly on his phone when they first got together, scantily clad, sexy lingerie, leaving very little to the imagination. None of that compared to the X rated photos that were on his phone and all of them starring Cathy Woods completely naked, in full view poses that belonged in a porn magazine. What the hell?

His phone rang, jarring him back to the here and now. It was Kelly, what was going on?

"Hello, Kelly?"

"Cathy told me, delete them, delete everything," Kelly said determinedly.

"What?" Casey asked. He could hardly make any sense of what Kelly was saying.

"Just do it, delete everything," Kelly told him.

"Kelly, what's going on? What're you talking about?" Casey asked. What the hell was that crazy bitch up to now?

"She thought she was sending them to me and she called me in a panic when she realized she sent the pictures to the wrong number, delete all of it, now," Kelly told him.

"Okay," Casey still wasn't sure he got it, but he couldn't get rid of those obscene pictures fast enough for his own comfort.

"They're gone," he said, feeling disgusted he even had to look at them for as long as he did just to accomplish that.

He heard Kelly heave a sigh of relief, "Thank you."

"Run that by me again," Casey said, still feeling like he was missing something.

"Cathy called me five minutes ago frantic because she realized she sent the pictures to you by mistake, I told her I'd get you to delete them and not to worry," Kelly explained.

Casey felt his cheeks turning a warm pink as he realized he didn't even know how to respond to that. Almost ashamedly he told his best friend, "I didn't get too good a look at anything, they just came through before you called."

He just about asked Kelly how Cathy had even gotten his number, then he caught himself at the last second as it dawned on him that some of those non-existent text messages he never got, if they _had_ been sent, probably would've been through Cathy's phone instead of Kelly's, which would mean Kelly gave her his number. It wasn't something Kelly normally did, but...Casey reminded himself, there wasn't anything _normal_ about what was going on here. This was not one of Severide's _normal_ one night stands or even one of his two-week long flings. He was actually convinced he was in love with this woman, and if that was true, of course it made sense he'd give her Casey's number for an emergency contact or something.

Over the line he could hear Kelly had calmed down, "Sorry to drop this on you first thing in the morning, buddy, but Cathy was hysterical and I told her I'd get it taken care of."

Uh huh. That was Severide for you, a womanizer 90% of the time, but when he actually got serious about a woman, he'd do anything for her.

And that, Casey knew, was where the problem lay. He didn't think there was anything accidental about how those pictures got sent to his phone, he'd bet anything that Cathy did it on purpose just to see how Kelly would react, _knowing_ he'd do anything for her. But he also knew it wouldn't do any good to mention this, because Kelly would never hear of it, just like he wasn't willing to hear anything about Andy, about Heather, about Rice, Severide's track record preceded him, anything he didn't want to face, he shot down as soon as he heard it. And this wouldn't be any different and Casey knew it. He was getting tired of having so many things he couldn't tell his best friend about, and he knew that that was intentional too, the problem was he couldn't prove any of it, and there wasn't any way he could convince anybody else of what was going on without sounding like a nut.

"It's okay," he forced himself to answer nonchalantly, "I understand...she's...very lucky," he felt acid jumping from his stomach to his throat with every word he choked out, "to have you."

* * *

"Hey Casey, why the long face?" Herrmann asked as he made his rounds at the bar, "something eating you?"

"Oh..." Casey put his phone away, "Just thinking about something...Herrmann, can I ask you a...kind of personal question?"

"Yeah sure," Herrmann folded his arms against the countertop, "What's on your mind?"

"Uh...when you and Cindy first got together...would she ever answer the door first thing in the morning in just a shirt?" Casey asked, already anticipating this conversation _not_ going well.

Herrmann got a strange look on his face but it wasn't the one Casey expected to see. "Have you _met_ Cindy?" he asked, "That woman's such a devout Catholic, she won't even answer the door in a bathrobe. She don't leave that bedroom in the morning until she's dressed, got her hair and makeup on, and is ready to roll." There was a brief pause before Herrmann inquired, "Why do you want to know?"

"It's nothing, sorry, just forget I said anything."

"Hey I can tell something's the matter with you, Casey, now what is it?" Christopher asked.

"Probably nothing..." Casey looked down at the counter as he told Herrmann, "Severide thinks I'm just being paranoid, he's probably right."

"Hey, I know you, Casey," Herrmann said, "and you are a lot of things, but paranoid ain't one of them. If you think something's fishy, then that means it is. Now what's going on?"

Casey felt like an idiot telling anybody about it, but he tried to get started. "You know Severide's girlfriend, Cathy Woods?"

"Oh yeah, I've seen her around, not too closely though, if Cindy ever caught me staring at her, she'd pluck my eyes outta my skull and kick them across the street," Herrmann said.

"Something's wrong, Herrmann," Casey said. "I can't explain it, and I can't prove it, but something's wrong with her."

"What do you mean?"

"It sounds ridiculous...there's not really any point in me talking about it."

"Hey Casey," Herrmann told him, "I know on shift I answer to you because you're my lieutenant, but off-shift I've got almost 20 years on you, so maybe it's time you start talking to me."

He wasn't sure where to start. The first thing that came to mind just popped out, "I think she poisoned me."

"What?" Herrmann blinked.

Casey found himself spilling everything that had happened from the time he got sick to when everybody else got sick to what Will had told him about the arsenic.

"I know it doesn't make sense, and I know there's no way to connect it all, but I'm convinced she did something," Casey said. "And it's not just that, it's a bunch of little things that she's doing and she only does them when nobody else is around."

"Like what?" Herrmann asked, one eyebrow raised in silent inquiry.

"Every time I go over there in the morning, she answers the door, half naked, she's been coming onto me, I think she's hoping Kelly will catch us and make something out of it. As soon as he's out of the room she's shooting me all these death glares like I'm intruding on them, even when Kelly's invited me over. We've made plans to get together several times and something always comes up and he has to cancel. Last week he was supposed to be here. He said that Cathy sent a text saying he couldn't make it, but I never got a text. A couple nights ago we were supposed to go out to a new club, she gave me the directions and sent me on a wild goose chase halfway across town to the wrong club. I confronted her about it...and she insists that I'm just confused and I don't know what I'm talking about."

"Yeah?" Herrmann replied, "Well she's not too bright, there's no way a decorated lieutenant in the CFD could be wrong so many times."

"Try telling that to Severide," Casey murmured.

"Tell what to Severide?" Otis asked as he came over to them.

"Nothing," Casey said as he got up from the bar stool, "I'm out of here."

"Hold it, sit back down," Christopher told him. He looked at Brian and said to him, "Otis, you've met this Cathy Woods woman, right?"

"Oh yeah," Otis nodded.

"What's your impression of her?"

"Why?"

"No reason," Casey said, suddenly wanting this whole conversation to go away, "I'm being paranoid."

"Matt, _sit_," Herrmann said when Casey moved to get up. Casey quietly complied. Herrmann looked at Otis and asked him, "What's your impression of her?"

"Honestly?" Brian replied. "She's nice to look at, and she's an okay cook, but I'm not sold on her. What's going on?"

"That bitch might've poisoned Casey," Herrmann said lowly.

"What?" Otis's eyebrows jumped halfway up his forehead.

"We can't prove it," Casey told him, "I can't prove any of it...but I think she's responsible...and I think she poisoned everybody at the firehouse, I don't know how, and I know it sounds crazy, and paranoid-"

It sounded like all the true crime shows he'd been watching every night on the couch for the last several weeks. Somehow in this whole grand scheme, Cathy Woods fit the pattern of the typical psychotic woman who wound up killing her husband or her parents or her kids or even a complete stranger for some twisted personal gain, and Casey knew it sounded too ridiculous to even be true.

"No it doesn't," Otis shook his head.

Both men looked at him.

"What?" Casey asked.

Otis shook his head. "It makes sense. We all know what we saw that first day when she was fighting with Connie...trying to get into Severide's quarters? For what? You think she poisoned the doughnuts?"

Casey reluctantly nodded, "I don't know how-"

"Nobody even knew where they came from...she could've slipped into the firehouse before we came on shift, before Connie got in for work, put them on the table and slipped back out. You're right, we can't explain how, but it makes sense."

"But Severide is never going to believe it, he's head over heels in love with her and he's not going to listen to a word anybody says against her, we know that, we know how he does," Casey said.

All three men were in agreement about that.

"But," Otis suggested, "just because Severide won't believe it...doesn't mean nobody else will. I think you need to bring this up with Boden for protection against any future incidences, then if anything else happens, he ought to know about it. 51's open door policy is a double edged sword, anybody can get in at any time and that can include a psychotic girlfriend, who _nobody_ will suspect of being capable of doing something wrong."

Casey inhaled slowly and told them, "There's more...I think she slashed my tires last month."

"What?" the two bartenders asked.

Casey explained the situation to them from the night of the hockey game.

"Are you serious?" Herrmann asked.

"How'd she find out where you live?" Otis asked.

"She must've followed Severide when he came to get me, it's the only thing that makes sense," Casey said, realizing only now that while he hadn't given any conscious thought to the possibility that Cathy was responsible, the idea suddenly came out of nowhere, but made perfect sense to him.

"So she's stalking you, both of you," Otis said.

Casey shook his head, "I don't know about that."

Stalking. That word didn't set right with him.

"It's a legal definition, Casey," Otis said, "which means you better tell Antonio about all of this too."

"That's a good idea," Herrmann agreed, "maybe he can do a background check on this woman and find out what she really is."

A light bulb seemed to go off over Otis's head, but he didn't say anything, instead he told Casey, "Here's the thing, she's very charismatic, that's why everybody like her, so if you're going to go up against her, you need to get everything on the record, that way it's not just your word against hers, there'll be witnesses, there'll be police reports, there'll be something, and if anything happens, _everybody_ will have known in advance it was coming, so _everybody_ will be ready for it."

"I can't prove she's done anything, if I go telling everybody about this they _will_ think I'm being paranoid," Casey said.

"That's the thing, Casey," Otis told him, "there's no solid proof, and there might not be, but if you can build up enough circumstantial evidence against her, it would be just as damning for her. Whatever she's got planned, she's not going to back down, and it sounds like she's going to up the ante. The chief and the cops _have_ to know about this."

Casey hated to admit it but he knew Brian had a point.

"I'll talk to Antonio tomorrow," he decided, "And I'll tell Boden next shift...they're both going to think I'm crazy."

Otis shook his head, "No, this is an insurance policy if she tries to _make_ them think you're crazy."

"She wouldn't have far to go there," Casey noted, "her personality changes every time Kelly leaves the room, she swears she's sent me messages that she didn't, and I can't prove she didn't, and there's something else."

He told the two men about the photos she'd sent to his phone the other day and about Severide's reaction to it.

"She's definitely trying to pull something off," Otis said, "the question is what?"

"Yeah," Herrmann said, "And I would definitely bring this to the cops' attention _before_ she tries something like boiling a rabbit on your stove."

Both Casey and Otis looked at Herrmann like he was nuts, but Casey understood what he was getting at. He guessed he didn't really have any choice, he had to tell _somebody_ what was going on before things got worse. He hated to think how they _could_.


	11. Chapter 11

Early the next morning, Casey called Antonio to see if he could come in to the 21st District and talk to him, but didn't go into details about what for. Antonio could tell something was wrong and told Matt he'd be waiting for him. Casey was mildly relieved that Antonio was at the front desk waiting for him and he didn't have to try going through Trudy Platt and explaining the situation to her first for clearance. They headed up to the bullpen and Casey noted it was empty.

"Where is everybody?" he asked.

"Big shooting this morning, somebody had to stay behind and take calls," Antonio answered and gestured towards his desk, "Have a seat. What's going on?"

"I'm not sure how to explain it," Casey admitted, "I don't know where to start, it all sounds crazy."

"Just start wherever you can," Antonio said as he sat down across from the fireman, "Eventually it should all come full circle."

Casey nodded uncertainly, and tried to think how to piece it together that it made sense, "There's this woman, that Kelly's with..."

Somehow it all came pouring out, not in any order, but Casey told Antonio everything, including his suspicions that Cathy Woods had been the one to slash his tires. With some reluctance and obvious discomfort he also told Antonio about the pictures she'd sent, and the obscene phone call in the middle of the night. To the best of his knowledge he left no stone unturned. He wasn't sure how long it took to explain everything, but by the time he finished he felt emotionally exhausted.

And Antonio sat across from him with an unreadable expression on his face, and Casey didn't like what it probably meant.

"I guess this is the part where I'm supposed to convince you that I'm not losing my mind," Casey said.

Dawson blinked, "No, I believe you, Matt."

Casey paused for a minute, and asked in disbelief, "Why?"

Antonio almost laughed. "Matt, anybody who's been a cop longer than 10 minutes eventually encounters somebody like this, and usually it doesn't stop at one. Granted I've never dealt with someone specifically like this woman you describe, but I've seen some that came pretty close."

"But why?" Casey asked. "What makes someone this way?"

"That's one for the experts, psychiatrists, FBI profilers maybe, me, I just lock them up," Antonio said, "when I have sufficient cause to."

"And you don't," Casey said grimly, feeling all hope dashed again.

"Not yet," Antonio answered, "everything you describe is bizarre, shocking, horrific, but nothing criminal, not that we can prove yet. We need to look into this woman's background, do you know where she works?"

He thought back to the conversations he'd had with Kelly, "A publishing company."

"You know which one?"

Casey slumped in his chair, "No."

"Didn't think so...that's okay," Antonio was quick to assure him, "We can find out. Next thing, would you let our tech guys look at your phone?"

"For what?" Casey asked. "I deleted the pictures."

"Nothing's ever deleted, Matt," Antonio said, "if it was ever there, we can find it, that's something I'm constantly having to stress to my kids, you can't ever hide anything."

"Too bad you can't get Kelly's phone, then we might really get some answers," Casey commented, "There can't be any way that he didn't get all the messages I sent him, but if he said they didn't come through, where are they?"

"And you haven't told Kelly about _any_ of this?"

"I can't, Antonio, he wouldn't get it. Even if I didn't think Cathy was pulling the strings on all this, Kelly never sees anything he doesn't want to see, he won't listen to reason, he won't listen to facts, he gets defensive about why people are looking into something."

The cop got a grim expression on his face, "Casey, you can't leave him in the dark about this."

"I know...but there has to be a _right_ time to tell him when he might actually listen, and this just isn't it," Casey responded.

"Matt, I can't stress this enough, you have to be _be careful_," Antonio said.

"I know."

"I don't think you do. I don't know why this woman's got you in her crosshairs, but she's not going to back off. Whatever you do, do _not_ confront her. If she starts raising the stakes and there's a viable threat, you call me, call Voight, call somebody, do _not_ be alone with this woman."

"No problem," Casey replied. "If I never see her again it'd be too soon."

* * *

Something Antonio had said stuck in Casey's mind and after leaving the 21st District, he went to the library and searched through the true crime section and found several books of criminal psychology and several by FBI criminal profilers. He grabbed them all, hoping that something somewhere could shed some light on what made a person like Cathy Woods the way she was and what to do with them. On his way to the front desk, he stopped when he passed the movie section, turning on his heel, he looked back at the DVD cases and one in particular stuck out.

'Fatal Attraction'.

Herrmann's words from the previous night replayed in his head.

_"And I would definitely bring this to the cops' attention before she tries something like boiling a rabbit on your stove."_

Casey set his books down on one of the reading tables and stepped over to the movie rack. It had been a good number of years since he'd seen the movie, but he was starting to think a refresher might not hurt. He took a step back and was ready to add it to his pile, when a few rows down on the shelf, another title caught his eye. 'Play Misty For Me'.

With few exceptions, Casey had seen every Clint Eastwood movie, including this one, but that also felt like a lifetime ago. Suddenly it felt in his best interest to watch it again. As he pulled that case off the rack, an unfamiliar title almost seemed to light up in neon in the row between the other two. 'Gaslight'.

He knew the term, everybody did, gaslighting was driving somebody crazy, but his only actual knowledge of the movie itself came from the finale of M*A*S*H, he vaguely recalled Hawkeye's ranting in the psyche ward.

_"Charles Boyer was trying to drive Ingrid Bergman crazy in 'Gaslight'. "The light's going dim!" "No it's not, you're crazy!" Now, she knew she wasn't going crazy, the audience knew she wasn't going crazy and this FRENCH guy is trying to have her put away, now I'd like to know why!"_

For some reason, Casey thought it would be a very good idea to check it out. He held the three DVDs in one hand, picked up his stack of books with the other and headed to the front to get checked out.

* * *

Casey felt exhausted. He'd spent the night reading a little in each of the books he'd picked up, but he spent six straight hours watching the movies he'd rented. 40 years between them, and nothing changed, crazy people were always crazy, and always oh so charismatic, and charming, and could make you doubt your own senses, even when it was obvious they were a straight-up loony, their public appearance would have everyone believing _you_ were the nut if you tried calling them on it. Every time it all started so innocently enough, a chance meeting, and then...but he started to think, or tried to. Where and how _had_ Kelly met Cathy? Just in a bar? Just by chance? Or had it been planned? Had she already set her sights on him before he even saw her? Or had she just been fishing for any guy that she could somehow just look at and know who she could sink her hooks into?

As bad as he already felt, it didn't do him any good to remember in a few hours he'd be on shift for 24 hours, and he _still_ had to talk to Boden. He was too tired to go to bed so he just shut off the TV and curled up on the couch, and prayed for sleep though he doubted it would be peaceful or restful whatsoever.

* * *

Squad had been called out but Truck wasn't. Casey knew there wouldn't be any better time to speak to the chief, even so he found himself pacing and wringing his hands outside of Boden's office.

"Lieutenant Casey."

Matt was drawn out of his thoughts and saw Connie staring at him.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Uh...no," he answered honestly as he shook his head. "I need to speak to Boden, and...I'm not sure how I'm going to do it."

"Is this about that woman?" Connie asked as one eyebrow arched halfway up her forehead.

Casey looked at her with wide eyes of shock. "Uh...yeah, it is." He looked in the window and saw Boden was off the phone and decided it wasn't going to get any easier. "Wish me luck."

He knocked on the door before sticking his head in, "Chief, got a minute?"

"Sure, come on in."

Casey entered the office and closed the door behind him, making sure the bolt actually held so their conversation didn't drift out to the next room. "Uh...I need to talk to you about something."

Boden looked at Casey over the top of his reading glasses, "Okay?"

"It's about Severide's girlfriend," Casey said. "I know it's going to sound crazy, but...Chief, I think she's the one that poisoned everybody."

Boden's eyebrows raised slightly, "Excuse me?"

"I think she poisoned us," Casey said, "I think she's responsible for everything that's been going wrong the last few weeks."

"You lost me already, Matt," Boden said as he gestured for the lieutenant to sit down, "You want to back up and try that again?"

Casey sat down and balled up one hand in a fist and nervously hit it against the flat of his palm, "Cathy Woods, you've met her?"

"I've seen her briefly," Boden answered.

"Chief, a lot of strange things have been happening since Kelly met her...and I can't prove anything, but I just know she's responsible."

"Like what?"

"Somebody slashed the tires on my truck a while back, I think she did it," Casey said. "Severide's phone keeps calling me in the middle of the night and nobody's there...some of us went over to his place one night when she made dinner, and I was on the bathroom floor puking my guts up all night, by the next shift, everybody else was sick...he says he doesn't get my messages, my calls, he says he sent me messages that I didn't get...a few nights ago his phone called me, nobody _talked_, but I could hear them having sex...then she sent me a bunch of pictures...I mean X rated, Chief, she called Kelly and said she meant to send them to him instead, had him call me to delete them..." he shook his head, "I don't buy it. I've been around this woman more than I care to, and one thing I know, she doesn't do _anything_ by accident...it's all very carefully planned, and because of that, I can't get Kelly to see what she's doing, and I can't get him to believe me."

"I have to admit I'm having a little trouble there myself," Boden said.

Casey felt like he was going to burst into tears. Of all people not to believe him, "Chief-"

"I'm not saying I don't believe you, Casey," Wallace raised a hand to get his attention, "but this isn't making any sense."

"Tell me about it," Casey replied.

"Matt..."

A knock at the door interrupted them, Connie stepped in and said bluntly, "Chief, a minute."

Boden knew better than to argue with his secretary. "What is it, Connie?"

She looked at the battalion chief and said, short and to the point, "That-bitch-is-crazy."

Now Casey's eyebrows moved up his forehead, as did Boden's at Connie's little bombshell.

"Oh-kay," Boden said, recovering from his shock, he cleared his throat and asked Casey, "Have you talked to the police about this?"

"I talked to Antonio," Casey said, "He advised not being alone with Cathy. Since she's been showing herself in around here, I thought I better bring it to your attention incase anything else would start happening."

"And you haven't brought Kelly in on this?"

"Chief, I can't, he's so blind in love with her," Casey said, "He said he hasn't felt this way since Renee."

Boden inhaled and leaned back in his chair.

"He's not going to see what's happening and you know it," Matt said, "That's why this is so hard."

Wallace nodded, "No argument there. Alright, I'll put the word out to the men to keep their eyes open and not to mention anything to Severide, for the time being. If you're right and things start getting worse, it's going to have to come to his attention whether he wants to face it or not. In the meantime, _nobody_'s to be alone with her if she gets foot in 51 again."

Casey nodded, but he wasn't sure he felt any better about the situation. He'd done what he had to, what Otis and Herrmann both agreed he should do, he brought Boden and the cops in on it, even though there still wasn't any proof of what was going on, there wasn't any way to prove anything Cathy had done. So now everybody knew to be on the lookout...but now what?


End file.
